Keywords:
Metabolic disorders, Diagnostic procedure, MR, Cardiac
Authors:
C. M. Berzovini1, R. Faletti2, M. Gatti2, E. Caramia2, E. Vanni1; 1Torino/IT, 2Turin/IT
Purpose
NAFLD (Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) is the most prevalent cause of hepatic disease in Western Countries (1).
It includes a wide spectrum of pathological syndromes,
progressively more severe,
ranging from steatosis to inflammation (s.c.
NASH,
Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis) to fibrosis and it could lead to cirrhosis with the development of nodules of regeneration and Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC).
NAFLD pathogenesis is complex and increased insulin-resistance plays a “key role” in it: it follows a frequent association and overlapping with other diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
In literature,
many studies already explored correlation between NAFLD and cardiovascular disease (2); we found great variability in selection criteria and NAFLD diagnosis due to the simultaneous presence in examined patients of diabetes,
hypertension or metabolic syndrome,
well-known cardiovascular disease related illnesses.
Furthermore,
few of these studies searched for pre-clinical alterations and most of them used only one imaging technique,
more often echocardiography.
Visceral fat and epicardial fat have common embryogenetic elements and could be involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD (3).
Purpose of our study was to evaluate if there is an increased epicardial fat and if there are significant signs of systolic and diastolic dysfunction in patients with hepatic biopsy proven NAFLD.