Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Young Adults: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

article

JungMin Choi¹  So-Ryoung Lee¹  Eue-Keun Choi¹  Hyo-Jeong Ahn¹  Soonil Kwon¹  Sang-Hyeon Park¹  HuiJin Lee¹  Jaewook Chung¹  MinJu Han¹  Seung-Woo Lee³  Kyung-Do Han⁴  Seil Oh¹  Gregory Y. H. Lip² 

[1] Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital;Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine;Department of Medical Statistics, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea;Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University;Liverpool Center for Cardiovascular Science, University of Liverpool and Liverpool Chest and Heart Hospital;Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University

关键词: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease;    fatty liver index;    atrial fibrillation;    young;    adult;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fcvm.2022.832023

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Background Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a multisystem disease including cardiovascular. However, the association between NAFLD and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation (AF), especially in young adults, remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the association between NAFLD as assessed by the fatty liver index (FLI) and the risk of AF in young adults. Methods We identified individuals aged 20–39 years who underwent health examinations conducted by the Korean National Health Insurance Corporation between January 2009 and December 2012. Individuals with significant liver disease, heavy alcohol consumption, or prevalent AF were excluded. We categorized based on FLI: <30, 30 to <60, and ≥60. Incident AF was evaluated as the primary outcome. Results We included 5,333,907 subjects (mean age, 31 ± 5 years; men, 57%). During a mean follow-up of 7.4 ± 1.1 years, 12,096 patients had newly diagnosed AF (incidence rate 0.31 per 1,000 person-years). After adjustment, subjects with FLI 30 to <60 and FLI ≥60 showed a higher risk of AF compared to those with FLI <30 (hazard ratio [HR] 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI, 1.15–1.27] and HR 1.47, 95% CI [1.39–1.55], p < 0.001, respectively). In women, the increased AF risk was accentuated in the higher FLI group than in the individuals with FLI <30, compared with men ( p -for-interaction = 0.023). A higher incident AF risk in the higher FLI groups was consistently observed in various subgroups. Conclusion Among young adults, NAFLD assessed using FLI was positively correlated with the AF risk. These findings support the evidence of AF screening in young adults with high FLI scores.

【 授权许可】

CC BY