Cardiovascular risk assessment in inflammatory bowel disease with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

Background And Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been reported to increase the risk of early atherosclerosis even in young patients. Moreover, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which has been linked to IBD, is a well-recognized but underdiagnosis entity related to cardiovascular risk. We analyze the impact of MASLD in IBD patients' cardiovascular risk through both advanced lipoprotein profile sorted by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT).

Methods: Cross-sectional cohort study which involves 941 IBD adult outpatients. Of them, 50 patients with IBD who met criteria for MASLD and 50 with IBD without MASLD, matched by sex and age were included. Alterations in CIMT were evaluated considering abnormal measures above the 75th percentile adjusted for sex and age. Specific advanced lipoprotein profile was also carried out.

Results: Most of the patients had an abnormal CIMT (58%). MASLD (OR=5.05, CI 95%=1.71-14.92) and female sex (OR=3.32, CI 95%=1.03-10) were significantly associated with CIMT alterations. Dense LDL particles (with high cholesterol composition in general cohort (OR=3.62, 95% CI=1.07-12.19) and high triglycerides density in young subgroup (OR=6.25, 95% CI=1.04-50) but not total LDL cholesterol were associated with CIMT alterations.

Conclusions: MASLD and female sex are associated with early atherosclerosis in IBD patients. Dense LDL particle in combination with vascular imaging findings should be evaluated as non-invasive tools in the management of cardiovascular risk in IBD patients.