Commentary
Although there can be common pathogenic mechanisms for NAFLD and hypertension associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases, little data are showing the association between NAFLD and hypertension in a large-scale cohort study.
JH Roh et al. (department of cardiology in internal medicine, Chungnam National University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea) evaluated the ability of the fatty liver index (FLI) to predict the development of hypertension in healthy individuals.
They included 334,280 healthy individuals without known comorbidities who underwent the National Health check-ups in South Korea from 2009 to 2014.
During a median of 5.2 years’ follow-up, 24,678 subjects (7.4%) had new-onset hypertension. There was a significant correlation between the highest FLI and an increased risk of new-onset hypertension.
The authors concluded that higher FLI was associated with the increased risk of newly developed hypertension after 2 years. In detail, as pointed out in an accompanying editorial, individuals with pre-existing hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and on lipid-lowering medications at baseline were excluded. The endpoint of study was a diagnosis of hypertension at a later health check-up. In the higher FLI quartile, the percentage of male, systolic blood pressure, current smoker rate, and the amount of alcoholic consumption were significantly higher. Fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and gamma GT were also significantly higher.
In the context of cardio-metabolic syndrome, although apparent clinical presentation is specific organs other than cardiovascular, patients with NAFLD/NASH should be provided comprehensive cardio-vascular.
