Cardiac Dysfunction in Patients with Fatty Liver Disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and heart failure (HF) are obesity-related conditions with high cardiovascular mortality. Many new studies have linked NAFLD to changes in myocardial energy metabolism, and to echocardiographic measurements of cardiac dysfunction especially heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Cardiac dysfunction in NAFLD is related to the release of inflammatory cytokines among those with steatohepatitis (NASH). However composite models looking at coronary artery disease, systolic and diastolic heart failure and outcomes in patients with NAFLD are limited, and the few preliminary analyses of this relationship using histologically-defined NASH or lean NAFLD remain unclear. In this project the investigators will screen patients with a diagnosis of 'non-alcoholic fatty liver disease' for presence of coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, cirrhotic cardiomyopathy and develop a model for cardiac dysfunction in such patients.