Abstract
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with high cardiovascular morbidity
and mortality which usually is considered to be related to cardiac involvement, while
scarce attention is addressed to brain damage. Viceversa NAFLD is associated with
asymptomatic brain lesions, alterations in cerebral perfusion and activity, cognitive
impairment and brain aging and with increased risk and severity of both ischemic and
haemorrhagic stroke. Besides known metabolic risk factors, NAFLD is characterized
by a pro inflammatory state, which contributes to atherosclerosis and microglia activation,
endothelial dysfunction, pro-coagulant state and platelets activation, which in turn
promote both micro and macrovascular damage eventually responsible for clinical and
subclinical cerebrovascular alterations. A better knowledge of the association between
NAFLD and brain alterations could lead to an improved management of risk factors underpinning
both liver and cerebral disease, possibly preventing the progression of asymptomatic
brain lesions to clinical cerebrovascular accidents.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 06, 2019
Accepted:
May 6,
2019
Received:
January 27,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l.
