A study on association between non alcoholic fatty liver disease and ischemic heart disease in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is often an incidental finding in a large subset of Indian population, who because of their sedentary life style are more prone to ischaemic heart disease (IHD). This study was aimed at determining the association between NAFLD and IHD, with and without traditional risk factors for ischemic heart disease and to determine the relationship between the ischemic heart disease and severity of NAFLD. Materials and methods: It was a prospective comparative study among patients who got admitted in General Medicine ward or visited OPD of our institute from February 2020 to September 2021. Patients selected were divided into two groups- Study arm included patients with clinical features and investigations suggestive of ischemic heart disease. Control arm patients were age (+/-5years) matched people coming to hospital with infections/ illness not affecting liver, and without any history of ischaemic heart disease. We did check for NAFLD in these patients and tried to determine the association with IHD. Results: Significant number of patients (68.5%) had NAFLD in the study arm patients who were admitted for IHD in comparison to only 33.3% (p value-<0.001). Study arm had 31% patients with grade 2 or more NAFLD in comparison to 17% of control arm patients. There was significant association present between IHD and Severity of NAFLD (p value<0.05). Conclusion: NAFLD should be considered a risk factor of IHD, and should prompt clinicians to search for other cardiovascular risk factors and intervene at earliest.