MAFLD predicts cardiovascular disease risk better than MASLD

Area of Science:

• Hepatology
• Cardiology
• Metabolic Diseases

Background:

• Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a proposed alternative to metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD).
• Understanding the comparative predictive value of these definitions for cardiovascular risk is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the abilities of MAFLD and MASLD definitions in predicting atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk.
• To evaluate the association between fatty liver status and cardiovascular risk surrogates.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 6,096 participants from the 2017-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
• Assessment of 10-year ASCVD risk and self-reported cardiovascular events in relation to fatty liver status.

Main Results:

• MAFLD identified in 47.7% and MASLD in 45.2% of participants.
• MAFLD showed a stronger independent association with high ASCVD risk (OR: 2.14) compared to MASLD (OR: 1.82).
• MAFLD alone was significantly more associated with high ASCVD risk (OR: 2.82) than MASLD alone.

Conclusions:

• MAFLD demonstrates superior predictive ability for ASCVD risk compared to MASLD.
• The enhanced predictive power of MAFLD is linked to metabolic dysfunction rather than alcohol consumption.