Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease association with structural heart, systolic and diastolic dysfunction: a meta-analysis

Objective Several studies have documented a relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and structural heart disease, particularly diastolic function. This meta-analysis will be the first to examine the echocardiographic-derived cardiac function and structural characteristics in NAFLD patients, and its association with liver disease severity and metabolic profile. Methods Medline and Embase were searched and pairwise meta-analysis was conducted in DerSimonian and Laird to obtain the odds ratio (OR) and mean difference (MD) for dichotomous and continuous variables, respectively, to compare the effects of NAFLD on the echocardiography parameters. Results Forty-one articles involving 33,891 patients underwent echocardiography. NAFLD patients had worse systolic indices with lower ejection fraction (EF, MD: − 0.693; 95% CI: − 1.112 to − 0.274; p = 0.001), and worse diastolic indices with higher E/e’ (MD: 1.575; 95% CI: 0.924 to 2.227; p