Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine · Oct 13, 2026

Association of NT-proBNP with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in elderly men with normal BMI and incident heart failure

By Ma J, Wang J, Zhou X et al.

BACKGROUND: With the increasing burden of lean nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and heart failure (HF), understanding the relationship between lean NAFLD and NT-proBNP in elderly patients becomes clinically important. This study aimed to identify the risk stratification value of combining NT-proBNP and lean NAFLD in elderly men with incident HF. METHODS: The data from consecutive male patients aged 80 years or older, with incident HF of New York Heart Association class III/IV and a BMI less than 23 kg/m², who had available NT-proBNP measurements within 24 h of admission, were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical outcomes were 180-day all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. RESULTS: A total of 3,627 patients were included. The levels of NT-proBNP were significantly higher in patients without lean NAFLD compared to those with lean NAFLD. After multivariate logistic regression, lean NAFLD remained independently associated with NT-proBNP category. Moreover, during the 180-day follow-up, Kaplan-Meier curves confirmed that patients with both lean NAFLD and NT-proBNP > 8330pg/mL had significantly higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared to those with NT-proBNP alone. CONCLUSION: NT-proBNP levels were higher in patients without lean NAFLD than in those with lean NAFLD. The coexistence of lean NAFLD and NT-proBNP > 8330 pg/mL was associated with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in elderly normal-BMI men with incident HF.

doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1846048Open accessPubMed 42947739Biomarkers