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World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2020; 8(20): 4688-4699
Published online Oct 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i20.4688
Relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and coronary heart disease
Ugur Arslan, Mustafa Yenerçağ
Ugur Arslan, Mustafa Yenerçağ, Department of Cardiology, University of Health Sciences Samsun Training and Research Hospital, Samsun 55400, Turkey
Author contributions: Arslan U conceptualized, designed and drafted the manuscript; Yenerçağ M reviewed the literatures; designed, discussed and edited the manuscript; Arslan U directed the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ugur Arslan, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Cardiology, University of Health Sciences Samsun Training and Research Hospital, Baris Bulvari, 199 Samsun 55400, Turkey. ugurarslan5@yahoo.com
Received: June 11, 2020
Peer-review started: June 11, 2020
First decision: September 12, 2020
Revised: September 17, 2020
Accepted: September 26, 2020
Article in press: September 26, 2020
Published online: October 26, 2020
Processing time: 136 Days and 13.4 Hours
Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and considered a liver manifestation of metabolic syndrome. It is in close relationship with insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes mellitus, all of which increase risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Besides, many studies point out that NAFLD independently contributes to the development of atherosclerosis and CHD. On the other hand, CVDs are the leading cause of death in NAFLD patients. Many pathophysiological changes and molecular mechanisms play an important role in NAFLD for CVD formation. Atherosclerosis is common in NAFLD, which also mainly contributes to the CVD formation and CHD. Many studies linking atherosclerotic CHD and NAFLD are present in the literature. Subclinical CHD, mainly detected by coronary computed tomography views, have been detected more common in NAFLD patients. Presence of NAFLD has been found to be more common in patients with severe CHD and in stable CHD, NAFLD has been found to be associated with more diffuse disease. In acute coronary syndromes, especially in acute myocardial infarction, patients with NAFLD have been found to have poor prognosis when compared with NAFLD free patients. In this review, our aim is to evaluate the relationship between NAFLD and CHD in detail and go over the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this relationship.

Keywords: Fatty liver; Hepatosteatosis; Coronary heart disease; Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular; Artery

Core Tip: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of liver disease and coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the world. Both of these diseases are significantly associated with each other and NAFLD has been found to be an independent risk factor for CHD in many studies. In this review, our aim is to evaluate the relationship between NAFLD and CHD in detail and go over the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this relationship.