• Vasilios G Athyros, Konstantinos Tziomalos, Niki Katsiki, Michael Doumas, Asterios Karagiannis, and Dimitri P Mikhailidis.
• Vasilios G Athyros, Niki Katsiki, Michael Doumas, Asterios Karagiannis, Second Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Hippokration Hospital, 55132 Thessaloniki, Greece.
• World J. Gastroenterol. 2015 Jun 14; 21 (22): 6820-34.

AbstractNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered to be an independent cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor. However, simple steatosis has a benign clinical course without excess mortality. In contrast, the advanced form of NAFLD, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with liver fibrosis increases mortality by approximately 70%, due to an increase in CVD mortality by approximately 300%. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be caused by NAFLD/NASH and it substantially increases CVD risk, especially in the presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Moreover, CKD may trigger NAFLD/NASH deterioration in a vicious cycle. NAFLD/NASH is also related to increased arterial stiffness (AS), an independent CVD risk factor that further raises CVD risk. Diagnosis of advanced liver fibrosis (mainly by simple non-invasive tests), CKD, and increased AS should be made early in the course of NAFLD and treated appropriately. Lifestyle measures and statin treatment may help resolve NAFLD/NASH and beneficially affect the CVD risk factors mentioned above.

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