Cardiovascular disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: pathophysiology and diagnostic aspects

Abstract

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) can be interpreted as the hepatic expression of metabolic syndrome, which is estimated to affect 30% of the adult population. Obesity, dyslipidaemia, arterial hypertension, and T2DM are considered significant risk factors of MASLD. The relationship is two-way with MASLD found in up to 75% of patients with T2DM. Importantly, MASLD is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as arrhythmia, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart failure, and CVD-associated mortality. In addition, MASLD patients present with a high prevalence of major adverse cardiac events, which calls for systematic surveillance of CVD in MASLD. This review focuses on the pathophysiology behind development of CVD in MASLD, the types of cardiovascular complications, morbidity and survival, and suggestions for evaluation of patients with MASLD.