Metabolic-associated Fatty Liver Disease and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Background: With the gradual adoption of new metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) definitions in clinical practice, the relationship between MAFLD and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk remains unclear. Similarly, clinical differences between MAFLD and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and the relationship between MAFLD and CVD risk are unclear.Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using the 1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES III) database, including 11,673 individuals. Multivariate logistic regres-sion analysis was performed to test relationships between MAFLD and the 10-year CVD risk.Results: MAFLD was more significant than NAFLD in medium/high 10-year CVD risk (according to Framingham risk score) (1064 (29.92%) vs. 1022 (26.37%), P < 0.005). MAFLD patients were strat-ified according to NAFLD fibrosis scores (NFS's). In univariate regression analysis, when compared with non-MAFLD patients, unadjusted-OR values for MAFLD with different liver fibrosis stages, which were tiered by NFS (NFS <-1.455,-1.455 < NFS < 0.676, and NFS > 0.676) in the medium 10-year CVD risk (according to Framingham scores) were 1.175 (95% CI 1.030-1.341), 3.961 (3.449-4.549), and 5.477 (4.100-7.315), and the unadjusted or values of different MAFLD groups in the high 10-year CVD risk were 1.407 (95% CI 1.080-1.833), 5.725 (4.500-7.284), and 5.330 (3.132-9.068). Then, after adjusting for age, sex, race, alcohol consumption, and smok-ing, or adjusting for age, race, alcohol consumption, smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and other confounding factors, the incidence of medium and high 10-year CVD risk was statisti-cally significant (P < 0.05).Conclusions: We showed that patients with MAFLD had a higher 10-year CVD risk when compared with patients with NAFLD. Increased MAFLD hepatic fibrosis scores were associated with a 10 -year CVD risk.(c) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.