MAFLD and NAFLD: is there the need for redefining the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality?

Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide and is characterized by a high burden of metabolic alterations. It exposes patients to increased morbidity and mortality, mostly driven by cardiovascular (CV) complications. Despite its large use, the nomenclature NAFLD has some limitations, due to the exclusion of patients with hepatic fat and concomitant other liver diseases or moderate alcohol consumption possibly contributing to hepatic damage. Therefore, a new and more inclusive definition of fatty liver has recently been proposed, namely metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). It comprises patients with hepatic steatosis and associated metabolic comorbidities, without exclusion of other liver diseases. As for the nature of the new definition of MAFLD, it could be speculated that an increased risk of cardiovascular complications should be expected. Therefore, our review aims at answering the question about possible differences in cardiovascular risk and mortality in patients with NAFLD compared to MAFLD. We selected 8 studies out of 1130 by searching in the PubMed database. Data from literature seem to report an increased risk of CV events and mortality in patients affected by MAFLD compared to NAFLD, possibly due to the metabolic burden and coexistence of other liver diseases typical of MAFLD. However, further prospective studies are warranted to confirm this preliminary hypothesis.

Keywords

Hepatic steatosis / metabolic alterations / cardiovascular risk scores / cardiovascular events / cardiovascular death

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