Effect of hypertension on long-term adverse clinical outcomes and liver fibrosis progression in MASLD

Abstract

Background & Aims: Hypertension is common in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), but its impact on long-term clinical outcomes and disease progression remains unclear. This study investigated the association of hypertension with the risk of adverse clinical outcomes and progression of liver stiffness/fibrosis in MASLD. Methods: Three multicenter large cohorts were analyzed: the UK Biobank (UKBB) cohort to assess the risk of adverse clinical outcomes, the VCTE-Prognosis cohort to assess liver stiffness/fibrosis progression, and the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort to assess histologic liver fibrosis progression. Adverse clinical outcomes were defined as all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, and/or liver-related events. Liver stiffness progression was defined as an increase in liver stiffness measurement from <10 kPa to >= 10 kPa or an increase of >= 20% for baseline liver stiffness measurement >= 10 kPa. Liver fibrosis progression was defined as a 1-stage fibrosis stage increase. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to evaluate the impact of baseline hypertension on outcomes. Results: A total of 107,316 adults from the UKBB cohort, 8,169 from the VCTE-Prognosis cohort, and 1,670 from the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort were included. The prevalence of hypertension was 37.1%, 33.4%, and 48.9%, respectively. In the UKBB cohort, hypertension was associated with long-term adverse clinical outcomes (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.30, 95% CI 1.26-1.33, p <0.001). In the VCTE-Prognosis cohort, hypertension was associated with a higher risk of liver stiffness progression (adjusted HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.30-1.90, p <0.001), while in the Paired Liver Biopsy cohort, hypertension was associated with a greater risk of histologic liver fibrosis progression (adjusted HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.12-1.78, p = 0.004). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses supported these findings. Conclusions: Hypertension is a modifiable risk factor that increases the risk of adverse clinical outcomes and progression of liver stiffness and fibrosis in MASLD. (c) 2025 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.