Relationship of hepatic steatosis and alanine aminotransferase with coronary calcification

Abstract

Background: It has been observed that hepatic steatosis is related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), an indicator for severity of hepatic steatosis, is also associated with CVD. This study focused on the relationship of hepatic steatosis and ALT with coronary calcification.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study to examine the association of hepatic steatosis and serum ALT with coronary calcification in 621 subjects (385 men, 236 women; age 30-75 year). We evaluated hepatic steatosis and ALT as categorical variables and constructed four groups (reference group; only with hepatic steatosis; only with ALT > 30 U/L; with both hepatic steatosis and ALT > 30 U/L), which were non-overlapping. Multi-detected row computed tomography (MDCT) was used to measure coronary calcium score (CCS). Results: The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for coronary calcification of the four groups were 1.00 (reference), 1.54 (0.62-3.83), 2.45 (0.73-8.16), and 2.89 (1.08-7.72) after adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusions: In summary, patients with both hepatic steatosis and ALT elevation are associated with coronary calcification as a marker of coronary atherosclerosis determined by MDCT. This finding suggested that the subject with both hepatic steatosis and elevated ALT should be considered for further evaluation of coronary atherosclerosis.