Relation of nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis to early carotid atherosclerosis healthy men. Role of visceral fat accumulation.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) is a clinicopathologicalsyndrome that is closely associatedwith obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance,and type 2 diabetes, thus suggestingthat NAFLD represents anothercomponent of the metabolic syndrome(1,2). Because it is now recognized thatindividuals with the metabolic syndromeare at increased cardiovascular risk (3–5),it is possible to hypothesize that NAFLDpatients might portend a greater cardiovasculardisease (CVD) risk. Ultrasonographicallymeasured carotid intimamediathickness (CIMT), as a reliableindex of subclinical atherosclerosis (6),can be used to characterize the CVD riskof patients with NAFLD. However, theavailable data on this specific topic arelacking.We compared CIMT values in subjectswith and without nonalcoholic hepaticsteatosis (HS) and examinedwhether such differences were mediatedby one or more metabolic disorders typicallyclustering in these subjects.