• Kazuhiro Osawa, Toru Miyoshi, Kentarou Yamauchi, Yasushi Koyama, Kazufumi Nakamura, Shuhei Sato, Susumu Kanazawa, and Hiroshi Ito.
• Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
• Plos One. 2015 Jan 1; 10 (6): e0131138.

BackgroundNonalcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with a risk of coronary artery disease (e.g., diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome). We evaluated whether nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis is associated with high-risk plaques as assessed by multidetector computed tomography (CT).MethodsThis retrospective study involved 414 participants suspected of having coronary artery disease. Nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis was defined as a liver-to-spleen fat ratio of <1.0 and the presence and appropriate characteristics of coronary-artery plaques as assessed by coronary CT angiography. High-risk plaques were identified, as were low-density plaques, positive remodeling, and spotty calcification.ResultsCompared with patients who did not have nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, patients with nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis had more low-density plaques (21% vs. 44%, p<0.01), positive remodeling (41% vs. 58%, p = 0.01), and spotty calcification (12% vs. 36%, p<0.01). The number of high-risk plaques in patients with nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis was greater than in those without nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis (p<0.01). Patients with nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis were more likely to have high-risk plaques than were those with only an elevated level of visceral adipose tissue (≥86 cm2; 35% vs. 16%, p<0.01). Multivariate analyses that included nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, amount of visceral adipose tissue, and the presence/absence of traditional risk factors demonstrated that nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis was an independent predictor of high-risk plaques (odds ratio: 4.60; 95% confidence interval: 1.94-9.07, p<0.01).ConclusionsDiagnosis of nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis may be of value when assessing the risk of coronary artery disease.

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