Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Its Association With Cardiovascular Disease Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Response to Schindhelm, Heine, and Diamant
- Giovanni Targher, MD12,
- Lorenzo Bertolini, MD2 and
- Christopher Day, MD3
- 1Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, “Sacro Cuore” Hospital, Negrar, Italy
- 3Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
- Address correspondence to Giovanni Targher, MD, Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University Hospital, Ospedale Civile Maggiore, Piazzale Stefani 1, 37126 Verona, Italy. E-mail: giovanni.targher{at}univr.it
We appreciate the comments by Schindhelm et al. (1) regarding our recent article reporting the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its association with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a type 2 diabetic population (2). In that study, we found that NAFLD is extremely common in type 2 diabetes and is associated with a higher frequency of manifest CVD. The prevalence of NAFLD was 69.5% among participants, and NAFLD was the most common cause (81.5%) of hepatic steatosis on ultrasound. In contrast, the frequency of hepatic steatosis likely due to other nonalcoholic …
