Johansen MJ, Vonsild Lund MA, Ängquist L, Fonvig CE, Holm LA, Chabanova E, Thomsen HS, Hansen T, Holm J. Possible prediction of obesity-related liver disease in children and adolescents using indices of body composition.
Pediatr Obes 2022;
17:e12947. [PMID:
35726748 PMCID:
PMC9541567 DOI:
10.1111/ijpo.12947]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents currently requires advanced or invasive technologies.
OBJECTIVES
We aimed to develop a method to improve diagnosis, using body composition indices and liver biochemical markers.
METHODS
To diagnose non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, 767 Danish children and adolescents underwent clinical examination, blood sampling, whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanning and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy for liver fat quantification. Fourteen variables were selected as a starting point to construct models, narrowed by stepwise selection. Individuals were split into a training set for model construction and a validation test set. The final models were applied to 2120 Danish children and adolescents to estimate the prevalence.
RESULTS
The final models included five variables in different combinations: body mass index-standard deviation score, android-to-gynoid-fat ratio, android-regional fat percent, trunk-regional fat percent and alanine transaminase. When validated, the sensitivity and specificity ranged from 38.6% to 51.7% and 87.6% to 91.9%, respectively. The estimated prevalence was 24.2%-35.3%. Models including alanine transaminase alongside body composition measurements displayed higher sensitivity.
CONCLUSIONS
Body composition indices and alanine transaminase can be used to estimate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, with 38.6%-51.7% sensitivity and 87.6%-91.9%, specificity, in children and adolescents with overweight (including obesity). These estimated a 24.2%-35.3% prevalence in 2120 patients.
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