Patients with high level of the enzyme associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have increased risk of coronary heart disease that appears to be related to insulin resistance, obesity and central fat distribution.

The results showed that patients with elevated ALT who did not have hepatitis or excessive alcohol intake had an increased risk of heart disease, particularly among women. Patients who had hepatitis or consumed excessive amounts of alcohol and were not obese did not have this increased risk.

"Given that elevated serum ALT in the absence of viral hepatitis or excessive alcohol consumption is most commonly due to NAFLD in the U.S., our results suggest that NAFLD is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease," the authors state. They also evaluated whether there was a threshold level of ALT above which the risk of heart disease was elevated and found that it was higher in men than in women.

This new study on the relationship between NAFDL and coronary heart disease appears on the May 2006 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hepatology is available online via Wiley InterScience.

Read more at EurekAlert.