Clinical utility of liver fat quantification for determining cardiovascular disease risk among patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Aims: To examine the clinical utility of liver fat quantification for determining CVD risk among a well-phenotyped cohort of patients with T2DM. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective cohort of adults age >= 50 years with T2DM. Liver fat was quantified with magnetic resonance imaging proton-density-fat-fraction (MRI-PDFF), an advanced imaging-based biomarker. Patients were stratified into a higher liver fat group (MRI-PDFF >= 14.6%), and a lower liver fat group (MRI-PDFF < 14.6%). The co-primary outcomes were CVD risk determined by Framingham and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease ( ASCVD) risk scores. High CVD risk was defined by risk scores >= 20%. Results: Of the 391 adults (66% female) with T2DM in this study, the mean (+/- SD) age was 64 (+/- 8) years and BMI 30.8 (+/- 5.2) kg/m(2), respectively. In multivariable analysis, adjusted for age, gender, race, and BMI, patients in the higher liver fat group (MRI-PDFF >= 14.6%) had higher CVD risk as assessed by Framingham risk score [OR = 4.04 (95% CI: 2.07-7.88, p < 0.0001)] and ASCVD risk score [OR = 2.85 (95% CI: 1.19-6.83, p = 0.018)], respectively. Conclusion: While it is known that NAFLD and T2DM increase the risk of CVD among patients with T2DM, a higher liver fat content further increases CVD risk independent of age, gender, ethnicity and BMI. These findings raise the question whether liver fat quantification should be incorporated into risk calculators to further stratify those with higher CVD risk.