This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

High epicardial fat may indicate liver fibrosis in NAFLD

Researchers found among a cohort of adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that epicardial fat thickness was associated with liver fibrosis, according to study data.

“In a Western cohort of biopsy-proven NAFLD patients with a high prevalence of [nonalcoholic steatohepatitis] and severe liver fibrosis, we observed that epicardial fat thickness is significantly associated with the severity of liver fibrosis, and that morphological and functional cardiac alterations by echocardiography are inversely correlated with the severity of liver damage,” the researchers wrote.

To determine any association between epicardial fat and liver fibrosis in NAFLD, researchers analyzed anthropometric, biochemical and metabolic features of 147 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD. Epicardial fat thickness was measured by echocardiography.

The researchers found that more patients with epicardial fat greater than 7 mm (37.1%) had severe liver fibrosis compared with patients with lower epicardial fat (18.3%; P = .01). Epicardial fat was higher in patients with severe fibrosis vs. milder fibrosis (8.5 ± 3 vs. 7.2 ± 2.3 mm; P = .006). This association remained the same after multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for gender, age greater than 50 years, visceral obesity, IFG/diabetes, NASH and severe steatosis (OR=1.22; 95% CI, 1.01-1.47; P = .04).

After adjusting for cardiometabolic variables, diastolic posterior-wall thickness (P = .01), left ventricular mass (P = .03), relative wall thickness (P = .02), ejection fraction (P = 0.004), lower lateral tissue Doppler imaging e′ (P = .009), left atrial volume (0.04) and E/A ratio (0.04) were linked to severe liver fibrosis, according to the research.

“In patients with NAFLD, a higher epicardial fat thickness is associated with the severity of liver fibrosis, in keeping with a possible pathogenic role of ectopic fat depots in whole body organ damage,” the researchers concluded. “In addition, morphological and functional cardiac alterations are more pronounced according to the severity of fibrosis. Further studies are needed to validate our results.” – by Melinda Stevens

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.