Cardiovascular Risk Induced by the Presence of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Objective: To quantify the cardiovascular risk in Romanian patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Materials and methods: This is a prospective observational investigation on patients with NAFLD to determine the cardiovascular risk using Framingham cardiac risk score and SCORE cardiovascular risk. Results: We found an average Framingham risk of 12.21239%, statistically significant compared to the population of the same age and sex (p=0.000515). Correlating Framingham score with liver fibrosis indexes reveal close linear correlation: index ASPRI r=0.591, respectively Fib 4 index r=0.126. We also found weak positive linear correlation between average blood pressure and Framingham risk (r=0.238), meaning that patients with increased blood pressure have a high average risk to present with a major cardiovascular pathology in the next 10 years. For Asper Heart Score risk (n=101), we obtained an average of 3.03%, statistically significant, higher than the control group (1.88 %; p=0.001739). A total of 20 patients showed an increased cardiovascular risk (???5) in the SCORE system, mostly men (n=13). Estimation of Framingham and SCORE cardiovascular risk proved an increased risk with age (Spearman coefficient r=0.64, respectively r=0.47). The risk was lower in women and higher in those presenting with obesity, hypertensive waist or metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: Cardiovascular risk of subjects with fatty liver is extremely high and often neglected by GI or internal medicine clinicians who are concerned generally only about the digestive pathology.