Metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease and atrial fibrillation: A review of pathogenesis

Table 1 Summary of key studies that highlight the increased risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and metabolic-associated steatohepatitis

Study	Ref.	Year	Type	Population	Key findings
Incident cardiac arrhythmias associated with MASLD	Simon et al[18]	2023	Retrospective cohort	11206 Swedish adults with histologically-confirmed MASLD	MASLD patients had a significantly higher incidence of AF (aHR = 1.26, 95%CI: 1.18-1.35) compared to controls
MASLD is associated with an increased long-term risk of AF	Mantovani et al[21]	2024	Systematic review and meta-analysis	16 retrospective cohort studies with approximately 19.5 million individuals	MASLD is associated with an increased risk of developing AF
Cardiovascular disease and MASLD	Møller et al[20]	2025	Systematic review	General review of MASLD patients	MASLD is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, including AF
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the risk of incident AF in young adults	Choi et al[23]	2022	Prospective cohort	5333907 young adults in South Korea	NAFLD patients had a higher risk of new-onset AF, which increased progressively with NAFLD severity
Association of NAFLD with new-onset AF stratified by age groups	Cho et al[1]	2024	Retrospective cohort	3179582 participants from the Korean National Health Screening Program	NAFLD patients had a higher risk of new-onset AF, which increased progressively with NAFLD severity

AF: Atrial fibrillation; MASLD: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease; NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; aHR: Adjusted hazard ratio.