The correlation between fatty liver disease and chronic kidney disease.
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
The impact of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is not fully elucidated. We aimed to assess the correlation between NAFLD and CKD in a large population study.


METHODS
We included consecutive subjects who had received health check-up service at Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 2002 to 2009. NAFLD was diagnosed with abdominal ultrasound, and advanced liver fibrosis was determined with NAFLD fibrosis score (NAFLD-FS). CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2.


RESULTS
Among the 29,797 subjects enrolled in this study, NAFLD and CKD were diagnosed in 44.5% and 20.2% of the population, respectively. Subjects with NAFLD had a higher proportion of CKD compared to those without NAFLD (24.1% vs. 17.1%, p < 0.001). However, NAFLD was not related to CKD with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.015 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.954-1.081, p = 0.630) after multivariate analyses. Nevertheless, further analyses revealed that among patients with NAFLD, those with advanced fibrosis were more likely to have CKD after adjusting for confounding factors (OR 2.284, 95% CI 1.513-3.448, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
NAFLD per se was not a risk factor for CKD, but NAFLD patients with advanced fibrosis faced a higher possibility of CKD. Hence, patients with NAFLD and advanced fibrosis should be screened for CKD and prompted to receive treatment if the diagnosis was made.
['Chen|Po-Chun|PC|', 'Kao|Wei-Yu|WY|', 'Cheng|Yuan-Lung|YL|', 'Wang|Yuan-Jen|YJ|', 'Hou|Ming-Chih|MC|', 'Wu|Jaw-Ching|JC|', 'Su|Chien-Wei|CW|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D005260:Female D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate D006801:Humans D008103:Liver Cirrhosis D016015:Logistic Models D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D015999:Multivariate Analysis D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease D015995:Prevalence D051436:Renal Insufficiency, Chronic D012307:Risk Factors D013624:Taiwan D014463:Ultrasonography
Kidney diseases Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease Liver fibrosis