According to a new meta-analysis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with an increased risk for atrial fibrillation (Afib), independent of common risk factors for Afib in middle-aged and elderly individuals and the risk is more in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers included a total of 9 studies involving 364,919 individuals (128,522 in cross-sectional studies and 236,397 in longitudinal studies) after a search across electronic databases to determine whether, and to what extent, NAFLD is associated with the risk for both prevalent and incident Afib.
The pooled results of 5 cross-sectional studies showed that NAFLD was associated with an increased risk for prevalent Afib (random-effects OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.38-3.10) and this was independent of age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and other common Afib risk factors. A cross-sectional study revealed that this association was much stronger in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes (random-effects OR, 5.17; 95% CI, 2.05-13.02).
Meta-analysis also showed that the presence of NAFLD was significantly associated with a 10-year increased risk for incident Afib (n=1; prospective study; random-effects HR, 4.96; 95% CI, 1.42-17.28) whereas a significant association was not observed in population-based or community-based cohort studies (studies, n=3; random-effects HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.91-1.48).
The authors suggest that additional larger prospective studies with longer follow-up durations and mechanistic studies are also needed to better understand the link between NAFLD and long-term risk for Afib.
