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Effect of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) on Left Ventricular Mechanics in Patients Without Overt Cardiac Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A. Sonaglioni, F. Cerini, Valeria Fagiani, G. Nicolosi, M. Rumi, M. Lombardo, Paola Muti

Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2025

1,348 participants · 38 citations

Abstract

Background: Over the last two decades, a fair number of echocardiographic studies have investigated the influence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) on myocardial strain and strain rate parameters assessed by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) in individuals without overt heart disease, reporting not univocal results. We aimed at analyzing the main findings of these studies. Methods: All studies examining conventional echoDoppler parameters by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and left ventricular (LV) mechanics [LV-global longitudinal strain (GLS), LV-global strain rate in systole (GSRs), in early diastole (GSRe) and late diastole (GSRl)] by STE in MASLD patients without known heart disease vs. healthy individuals, were searched on PubMed, Embase and Scopus databases. The primary endpoint was to quantify the effect of MASLD on LV-GLS in individuals without overt cardiac disease. Continuous data [LV-GLS, LV-GLSRs, LV-GLSRe, LV-GLSRl and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)] were pooled as the standardized mean difference (SMD) comparing MASLD cohorts with healthy controls. Results: A total of 11 studies were included, totaling 1348 MASLD patients and 6098 healthy controls. Overall, MASLD showed a medium effect on LV-GLS (SMD −0.6894; 95%CI −0.895, −0.472, p 0.05). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of study results. Conclusions: MASLD has a medium effect on LV-GLS, independently of demographics, anthropometrics and the…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid. Reported size: 1,348 participants or records.

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