Zhou YY, et al. - Authors attempted to scrutinize the connection between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in diabetic patients in order to determine the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) as a cardiovascular risk factor. Data illustrated that NAFLD raised the risk of CVD in populations with comparable DM profiles. It was also discovered that diabetic patients diagnosed with NAFLD could gain a benefit from a more early cardiovascular risk assessment, which would reduce the CVD morbidity and mortality.

Methods

• A search was performed of the PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library database until the end of March 2017.
• Studies that examined the association between NAFLD and cardiovascular risk factors in the diabetic population were included.
• Data was extracted related to outcome for the effect estimate using a random-effects model.
• Using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale, a scrutiny was conducted of the quality of the included studies.

Results

• Among the 770 initially identified studies, 11 studies involving 8,346 patients were included.
• Using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale scores, it was determined that the studies included were of high quality.
• As per the pooled effects estimate, diabetic patients with NAFLD displayed a two times increased risk for CVD compared with patients without NAFLD (odds ratio=2.20, 95% confidence interval: 1.67-2.90).
• Subgroup analysis demonstrated a substantially increased risk, with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) values of 2.28 (1.61-3.23) and 1.90 (1.48-2.45) in cross-sectional and cohort studies, respectively.