Link Between Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and various cardiovascular diseases has been demonstrated previously. Recent clinical studies have shown that increased circulating levels of γ glutamyl transpeptidase and liver transaminase, markers which are elevated in NAFLD, increase the risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available evidence to establish the possible association of increased chances of atrial fibrillation in patients with NAFLD. We extensively searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Science and Scopus databases to identify all possible studies that investigated the possible association of NAFLD with atrial fibrillation. Random effect models were used to pool the data between NAFLD and non-NAFLD group. I(2) testing was done to assess the heterogeneity of the included studies. Our primary outcome was atrial fibrillation. A total of three studies including 1044 patients in the NAFLD arm and 1016 in the placebo arm were included. On pooled analysis, it was observed that patients with NAFLD had 2.5 times significantly higher chance (OR = 2.47, CI = 1.30-4.66, p = 0.005) of developing new-onset atrial fibrillation. Our meta-analysis identifies the paucity of high-quality evidence regarding the association between NAFLD and atrial fibrillation. More studies are needed to confirm the link between NAFLD and atrial fibrillation.