Prognostic non-invasive biomarkers for all-cause mortality in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 1 Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis

Study characteristics	Le et al[18]	Kim et al[29]	Hagstrom et al[30]	Angulo et al[31]
Year	2019	2013	2019	2013
Country (setting)	United States (community care)	United States (community care)	Sweden (secondary care)	United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand, Italy, Iceland (secondary care)
Study design	Retrospective cohort study	Retrospective cohort study	Retrospective cohort study	Retrospective cohort study
NAFLD diagnostic method	USFLI1	Ultrasound2	Liver biopsy3	Liver biopsy3
Number of NAFLD participants	4680	4079	646	320
Average length of follow-up (yr)	Not specified, however follow-up period was 1999-2016	14.5 (median)	19.9 (mean)	8.7 (median)
Proportion of males (%)	56.3	50.9	62	43
Mean age (yr)	52.6	46.2	50	52
Caucasians (%)	74.8	75.8	Not specified	92
Mean BMI (kg/m2)	34.3	29.05	28	33
Cardiovascular disease (%)	13.3	7.1	Not specified	Not specified
Hypertension (%)	52.3	32.4	30	47.5
Diabetes (%)	24.4	9.5	14	36.2
Smoking (%)	45	55.2	Not specified	Not specified
Deaths (n)	683	778	214	22
Low NFS4 (%)	32.4	67.5	76.2	39.1
Intermediate NFS4 (%)	51.7	28.2	5.1	37.5
High NFS4 (%)	17.3	4.2	2.3	23.4

¹USFLI ≥ 30 and exclusion of liver disease of other aetiology.

²Ultrasound hepatic steatosis and exclusion of liver disease of other aetiology.

³Liver biopsy confirmed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and exclusion of liver disease of other aetiology.

⁴The same NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) cut-offs have been used in all studies: High NFS (> 0.676), intermediate NFS (-1.455-0.676), low NFS (<-1.455).

NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; BMI: Body mass index; NFS: NAFLD fibrosis score.