From: Physician’s Daily 2012-02-17 Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a clinicopathological syndrome characterized by lipid accumulation and steatosis in hepatocytes caused by various causes without a history of excessive alcohol consumption, and is considered to be a pathological manifestation of metabolic syndrome in the liver. NAFLD has now become one of the common liver diseases, and there are about 150 million NAFLD patients in China, with a prevalence of 15%. The disease spectrum of the disease varies with the progression of the disease and mainly includes simple fatty liver (NAFL), steatohepatitis (NASH) and its associated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Patients are often combined with overweight, visceral obesity, hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, hypertension, and impaired glucose regulation. NAFLD patients with combined dyslipidemia have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and effective prevention and treatment of NAFLD and concomitant dyslipidemia may improve the prognosis of patients. Yuan Gang, Department of Hepatology, Ningbo Second Hospital, Ningbo, China NAFLD patients: atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease at high risk For NAFLD patients, cirrhosis is the main regression, and the incidence of cirrhosis in NASH patients is as high as 15%-25% within 10-20 years. In fact, cardiovascular disease is another more important but easily neglected outcome in NAFLD patients. Studies have confirmed that patients with NAFLD are at high risk for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, and the leading cause of death in patients with NAFLD is cardiovascular disease. NAFLD as an independent predictor of cardiovascular events Japanese investigators conducted a prospective observational study that included 1221 subjects from a health screening program using abdominal ultrasound for the diagnosis of NAFLD. 5 years of follow-up and a questionnaire was used to investigate the incidence of cardiovascular events. The results showed that 231 patients with NAFLD had a total of 12 (5.2%) cardiovascular events, including 5 coronary events, 6 ischemic strokes, and 1 cerebral hemorrhage. 990 non-NAFLD subjects had a total of 10 cardiovascular events with an incidence of 1.0% (3 coronary events, 6 ischemic strokes, and 1 cerebral hemorrhage). Multifactorial analysis showed that NAFLD was an independent predictor of cardiovascular events, and the risk of cardiovascular events in NAFLD patients was 4.12 times higher than in non-NAFLD patients (risk ratio 4.12, P=0.004, Figure 1).
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