Association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and atrial fibrillation and other clinical outcomes: a meta-analysis
Vikash Jaiswal, Song Peng Ang, Helen Huang, Navroop Kaur Momi, Maha Hameed, Sidra Naz, Nitya Batra, Angela Ishak, Neel Doshi, Asmita Gera, Medha Sharath, Madeeha Subhan Waleed, Nishchita Raj, Victor Hugo Aguilera Alvarez
Abstract
The association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular outcomes, as well as their clinical impact, has yet to be established in the literature. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the association between the NAFLD patients and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), stroke, cardiovascular mortality (CVM), and revascularization incidence. We performed a systematic literature search using PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane libraries for relevant articles from inception until August 2022. A total of 12 cohort studies with 18,055,072 patients (2,938,753 NAFLD vs 15,116,319 non-NAFLD) were included in our analysis. The mean age of the NAFLD patients group and the non-NAFLD group was comparable (55.68 vs 55.87). The most common comorbidities among the NAFLD patients group included hypertension (38% vs 24%) and diabetes mellitus (14% vs 8%). The mean follow-up duration was 6.26 years. The likelihood of AF (risk ratio (RR), 1.42 (95% CI 1.19, 1.68), p < 0.001), HF (RR, 1.43(95% CI 1.03, 2.00), p < 0.001), stroke (RR, 1.26(95% CI 1.16, 1.36), p < 0.001), revascularization (RR, 4.06(95% CI 1.44, 11.46), p = 0.01), and CVM (RR, 3.10(95% CI 1.43, 6.73), p < 0.001) was significantly higher in the NAFLD patients group compared to that of the non-NAFLD group. However, all-cause mortality was comparable between both the groups of patients (RR, 1.30 (95% CI 0.63, 2.67), p = 0.48). In conclusion, the patients with NAFLD are at increased risk of AF, HF, and CVM.