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‹ Mon · 13 Jul 2026
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Sex- and menopause-specific inverse associations between metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and serum lipoprotein(a) concentrations: evidence from SHIP and UK Biobank.

Liver disease appears to shift cardiovascular risk markers differently in women after menopause, suggesting personalized risk assessment strategies for this vulnerable group.

Using SHIP-START-0 (3,825 participants) and UK Biobank (28,504 participants), this study reveals sex- and menopause-specific inverse associations between MASLD and serum Lp(a), with males having substantially lower Lp(a) with MASLD and the female association restricted to postmenopausal status. These findings suggest that standard Lp(a) thresholds for cardiovascular risk stratification may need reassessment in MASLD patients, and that postmenopausal women with MASLD may require more intensive Lp(a) reduction strategies.

What the study was

Study design
cross-sectional
Population
SHIP-START-0 (3,825 participants) and UK Biobank (28,504 participants)
Sample size
32329
Category
Diagnostics
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Cardiovasc Diabetol

Why it surfaced

Novel sex-stratified analysis of MASLD-Lp(a) relationship validated in two large population cohorts; highly relevant to cardiometabolic risk stratification; MASLD is a rapidly expanding clinical area; published open-access in Cardiovascular Diabetology; corrected from HIGH to STANDARD: score 7 with no HIGH-forcing flag.

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