The athero-contour: A novel tool for global and rapid assessment of atherogenic parameters. A use case in saroglitazar treatment of MAFLD patients.

Background and aims: Comprehensive assessment of pharmacotherapy effects on atherogenic parameters (AP) that influence the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is challenging due to interactions among a large number of parameters that modulate CVD risk.

Methods: We developed an illustrative tool, athero-contour (AC), which incorporates weighted key lipid, lipo- and glycoprotein parameters, to readily illustrate their overall changes following pharmacotherapy. We demonstrate the applicability of AC to assess changes in AP in response to saroglitazar treatment in patients with metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) in the EVIDENCES IV study.

Results: The baseline AC of saroglitazar and placebo groups was worse than the mean of the general population. After 16-week treatment, AC improved significantly in the saroglitazar group due to alterations in very low-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, and glycoproteins.

Conclusion: Using AC, we could readily and globally evaluate and visualize changes in AP. AC improved in patients with MAFLD following saroglitazar therapy.