Relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevalence and visceral fat in obese adolescents

Background. Visceral adiposity is the major risk factor for paediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Aims. Determine the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease according to the visceral fat quartile. Subjects. 181 obese adolescents including 113 girls (16.58 +/- 1.56 years) and 68 boys (16.87 +/- 1.62 years) were evaluated. Methods. The inclusion criteria were obesity and post-pubertal stage of Tanner. Visceral fat of obese adolescents was distributed in quartiles after ultrasound nonalcoholic fatty liver disease diagnosis. Results. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevalence was 45.30%. It was observed that 62.07% and 76.47% of girls and boys with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were found in the 4th quartile. In a multivariate logistic analysis it was observed that only visceral fat remained statistically significant, every I cm increase in visceral fat was associated with a 1.97 fold (95% CI 1.06-3.66) in boys and 2.08 fold (95% CI 1.38-3.13) in girls increased risk to develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Indeed it was verified a positive correlation between visceral fat, body mass index, insulin levels, homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index and steatosis degree. Conclusions. Our findings suggested that the expansion of visceral fat was a determinant factor to increase nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevalence and the visceral fat measured by ultrasound might be a good predictor to identify risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in obese adolescents. It was confirmed by a stronger correlation between visceral fat and body mass index. (c) 2007 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.