Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have common pathological links. This study investigates the prognostic impact of NAFLD assessed as hepatic steatosis (HS) by computed tomography (CT) in AMI patients and explores the mechanistic role of NAFLD in cardiovascular (CV) events using coronary angioscopy (CAS).
Methods: We retrospectively examined 342 AMI patients who underwent CT followed by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between January 2014 and December 2019. HS was defined as a hepatic to spleen attenuation ratio of <1.0 on CT scans. Major cardiac events (MCE) included cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, target-vessel revascularization, and target-lesion revascularization.
Results: HS was identified in 88 patients (26 %). Patients with HS were significantly younger, had a higher body mass index, and higher hemoglobin A1c, triglyceride, and malondialdehyde low-density lipoprotein levels (all p < 0.05). MCE occurred more frequently [27 (30.7 %) vs. 39 (15.4 %), p = 0.001] in the HS group than in the non-HS group. In the multivariate analysis, the presence of HS was an independent predictor of MCE after adjusting for metabolic risk factor and liver function markers. Among the 74 patients who underwent CAS for a median of 15 days after primary PCI, 51 (69 %) had intrastent thrombus, which was strongly associated with the presence of HS [18 (35 %) vs. 1 (4 %), p = 0.005].
Conclusions: AMI patients with NAFLD detected by CT often had CAS-derived intrastent thrombi and were at a high risk for CV events. Therefore, these patients should be carefully monitored.
Keywords: Computed tomography; Coronary angioscopy; Hepatic steatosis; Myocardial infarction; Percutaneous coronary intervention.
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