Background/purpose:A nomenclature of "metabolic associated fatty liver disease" (MAFLD) with new de nition was proposed in 2020 instead of previous "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" (NAFLD). However, which better ts the clinical demand remains controversial.
MethodsThe participants with fatty liver on ultrasonography from Taiwan bio-bank cohort were included. MAFLD was de ned as the presence of fatty liver, plus any of the following three conditions: overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), or metabolic dysfunction. The severity of liver brosis was determined using brosis-4 (FIB-4) score and NAFLD brosis score (NFS). The risk of atherosclerosis was assessed using intima media thickness (IMT) or plaques of carotid duplex ultrasound.
ResultsA total of 9719 subjects (age 55.9 ± 10.8; males 42.6%) were divided to four groups including "both fatty liver disease (FLD)", "MAFLD only", "NAFLD only", and "neither FLD" with the percentages of 79.7%, 12%, 7.1%, and 1.2%, respectively. Compared with NAFLD patients, MAFLD patients had higher frequency of male gender, BMI, waist circumference, HbA1C, and triglyceride. On addition, they had higher levels of serum ALT, AST, GGT, fatty liver index (FLI), NFS and IMT, but no difference in FIB-4 index and the percentage of carotid plaques. Of note, the added population "MAFLD only group" had higher levels of AST, ALT, GGT, FLI, FIB-4, NFS, IMT and higher percentage of carotid plaques than the missed population "NAFLD only group".
ConclusionsThis large, population-based study showed MAFLD with new diagnostic criteria could identify more highrisk patients of metabolic, liver and cardiovascular disease complications in clinical practice.