Associations between alcoholic liver disease (ALD) or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) hospital admission and cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and mortality in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were described by a study.

It was a retrospective cohort study that utilized data from the diabetes registry, hospital, cancer, and death records of people aged 40-89 years diagnosed with T2DM.

ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes were utilized to identify Liver disease and outcomes.

The observations were as follows-

• The study enrolled 134,368 people with T2DM (1,707 with ALD and 1,452 with NAFLD)
• Mean follow-up was 4.3 years for CVD and 4.7 years for mortality.
• Among individuals with ALD, NAFLD, or without liver disease hospital records 378, 320, and 21,873 CVD events respectively were noted.
• Among individuals with ALD, NAFLD, or without liver disease hospital records 268, 176, and 15,101 cancers respectively were noted.
• Among individuals with ALD, NAFLD, or without liver disease hospital records 724, 221, and 16,203 deaths respectively were noted.
• For ALD and NAFLD, respectively, adjusted HRs contrasting groups with no record of liver disease were 1.59 and 1.70 for CVD, 40.3 and 19.12 for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 1.28 and 1.10 for non-HCC cancer, and 4.86 and 1.60 for all-cause mortality.

It was thus concluded that ALD or NAFLD is differently associated with an increased risk of CVD, cancer, and mortality among people with T2DM.

Source: Diabetes Care. 2018 Feb;41(2):341-347. doi: 10.2337/dc17-1590. Epub 2017 Nov 22. PMID: 29167212.