The Relationship Between Type 2 Diabetes, NAFLD, and Cardiovascular Risk

• Published in: Current diabetes reports Vol. 21; no. 5; p. 15
• Main Authors: Caussy, Cyrielle, Aubin, Adrien, Loomba, Rohit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.05.2021; Springer Nature B.V; Current Medicine Group
• Subjects: Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Cardiovascular Diseases - etiology; Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - complications; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - epidemiology; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Humans; Insulin resistance; Life Sciences; Macrovascular Complications in Diabetes (VR Aroda and R Shah; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic syndrome; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - complications; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - epidemiology; Risk Factors; Section Editors; Topical Collection on Macrovascular Complications in Diabetes; Type 2 diabetes; Cirrhosis; Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; Fibrosis; Cardiovascular disease; Insulin resistance; Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; Metabolic syndrome
• ISSN: 1534-4827; 1539-0829
• DOI: 10.1007/s11892-021-01383-7

Purpose of Review Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are strongly associated. Both also associate with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recent Findings Several studies have provided evidence that NAFLD could be an independent CVD risk factor. Given the strong association between NAFLD and T2DM, assessing the independent CV effect of these two conditions remains challenging. However, patients with T2DM and NAFLD exhibit higher risk of CVD compared with T2DM without NAFLD suggesting a potential synergistic increase of CV risk in patients with both T2DM and NAFLD supported by several shared pathophysiological pathways. Several anti-diabetic therapies have shown beneficial effect on both NAFLD and CVD. Summary Patients with T2DM and NAFLD should be considered at high risk of CVD and could benefit from more intensive CV prevention. Additional long-term follow-up is needed to demonstrate that the treatment of NAFLD effectively reduces the risk of CVD.