Peripheral artery disease and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with NAFLD.

Purpose: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the first cause of death in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and risk stratification is recommended by current guidelines. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in patients with NAFLD and its association with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

Methods: 9145 participants 40 years or older attended a mobile examination center visit in the 1999-2004 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. PAD was defined as an ankle-brachial index (ABI) < 0.90 in either of the legs and mortality data through December 2015 were obtained from the National Death Index. NAFLD was defined by a fatty liver index ≥ 60 in the absence of other liver conditions, leading to a final sample of 3094 subjects.

Results: The overall prevalence of PAD was 5.9% (95% CI 5.0-6.9). Over a median follow-up of 13 years, 876 participants died, 208 of cardiovascular causes. Incidence rates of all-cause mortality (for 1000 person-years) were 20.2 (95% CI 18.7-21.7) and 70.0 (95% CI 60.1-81.6) for participants without and with PAD, respectively. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models showed that PAD was associated with a higher risk of all-cause (1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.4) and cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.5-4.3) after adjustment for potential confounders including prevalent CVD.

Conclusion: Current guidelines strongly encourage the screening of CVD in patients with NAFLD and the use of the simple and inexpensive measurement of ABI in routine clinical practice may find indication.