NON-INVASIVE ASSESSMENT OF LIVER FIBROSIS IDENTIFIES METABOLIC DYSFUNCTION-ASSOCIATED STEATOTIC LIVER DISEASE PATIENTS WITH INCREASED ARTERIAL STIFFNESS

Objective: Previous studies showed that liver stiffness, assessed through transient elastography and histological liver fibrosis, is associated with arterial stiffness. Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and APRI (AST to platelet ratio index) are blood-based scores used to assess metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) patients’ risk of liver fibrotic disease, potentially identifying individuals with increased large artery stiffness. Our study aims to assess the association of large artery stiffness with scores of liver fibrosis in a MASLD population. Design and method: The analyses were conducted on patients meeting MASLD clinical and imaging criteria. We collected blood chemistries to compute FIB-4 [(age x AST)/(platelets x square root of ALT)] and APRI (AST/Top Normal AST) x (100/platelets). We excluded patients with cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and other hepatic diseases to avoid a confounding effect on blood chemistries and arterial stiffness indices. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) was measured in all patients using SphygmoCor (AtCor Medical, Sydney, Australia) to assess large artery stiffness. Results: We recruited a total of 21 patients (13 hypertensive and 8 normotensive). CfPWV was not correlated with APRI (Spearman’s rho=0.08, p=0.72). On the other hand, cfPWV showed a direct correlation with FIB-4 (rho=0.51, p=0.017)(figure).Conclusions: Our preliminary results display a correlation between a blood-based score of hepatic fibrosis and large artery stiffness in a small MASLD cohort. FIB-4 is a potential non-invasive and cost-effective tool to assess arterial ageing in MASLD patients.