Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score and FIB-4 scoring system could identify patients at risk of systemic complications

AimTo investigate the relation between systemic complications of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-invasive fibrosis scores. MethodsThe NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) and FIB-4 were measured in 1559 people who underwent a complete medical checkup at our hospital and were followed for more than 3 years. Correlation between these scores and prevalence and new incidence rates of diabetes or cerebral-cardiovascular diseases were analyzed. ResultsThe 1559 cases were classified into two groups using the low cut-off values of NFS and FIB-4: group 1 (low cut-off score with fatty liver) and group 2 (the others). In group 1, the prevalence of diabetes and cerebral-cardiovascular diseases at baseline and additional incidences during the observation period was higher compared with group 2. Diabetes at baseline in group 1 versus group 2 were 31.5% versus 3.1% (NFS, P<0.0001), 17.0% versus 4.7% (FIB-4, P<0.0001), and cerebral-cardiovascular diseases at baseline were 7.7% versus 2.3% (NFS, P=0.002) and 9.0% versus 2.3% (FIB-4, P=0.0012). New incidences of diabetes were 4.5% versus 1.2% (NFS, P=0.034) and 3.6% versus 1.2% (FIB-4, P=0.11), and of cerebral-cardiovascular diseases were 5.0% versus 0.9% (NFS, P=0.0019) and 5.4% versus 0.9% (FIB-4, P=0.0034). ConclusionNFS and FIB-4 are useful to extract cases with high risk of systemic complications of NAFLD in the public.