A new study has linked non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to an increased risk of diabetes-related chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Research published ahead of print in the August Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that diabetes patients with NAFLD were 69 per cent more at risk of developing CKD than those without the condition.

Lead authors of the study, Dr Giovanni Targher of the University of Verona in Verona, Italy and Dr Michel Chonchol of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado, said: "NAFLD may be actively involved in the pathogenesis of CKD in type 2 diabetes, possibly through the release of some pathogenic factors from the liver.

"Identifying patients with NAFLD would highlight a subgroup of type 2 diabetic individuals who should be targeted with more intensive therapy to decrease their risk of developing CKD."

The researchers investigated the link between NAFLD and CKD in 1,760 Italian patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes, excluding subjects with other common causes of fatty liver disease including alcohol abuse, chronic viral hepatitis and use of medications known to have potentially toxic effects on the liver.

At the beginning of the study all subjects had normal or near-normal kidney function. The results showed that over the course of six and a half years, 547 patients developed CKD, indicating an annual risk of 4.5 per cent.

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