Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children with Obesity
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026
Novel In Vivo Micro-Computed Tomography Imaging Techniques for Assessing the Progression of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Published on: March 24, 2023
Elizabeth L Yu1, Shahrokh Golshan2, Kathryn E Harlow1
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA; Department of Gastroenterology, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA.
Objectives:
To determine the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children with obesity because current estimates range from 1.7% to 85%. A second objective was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) for NAFLD in children with obesity.
Study Design:
We evaluated children aged 9-17 years with obesity for the presence of NAFLD. Diseases other than NAFLD were excluded by history and laboratories. Hepatic steatosis was measured by liver magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction. The diagnostic accuracy of ALT for detecting NAFLD was evaluated.
Results:
The study included 408 children with obesity that had a mean age of 13.2 years and mean body mass index percentile of 98.0. The study population had a mean ALT of 32 U/L and median hepatic magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction of 3.7%. The estimated prevalence of NAFLD was 26.0% (95% CI 24.2%-27.7%), 29.4% in male patients (CI 26.1%-32.7%) and 22.6% in female patients (CI 16.0%-29.1%). Optimal ALT cut-point was 42 U/L (47.8% sensitivity, 93.2% specificity) for male and 30 U/L (52.1% sensitivity, 88.8% specificity) for female patients. The classification and regression tree model with sex, ALT, and insulin had 80% diagnostic accuracy for NAFLD.
Conclusions:
NAFLD is common in children with obesity, but NAFLD and obesity are not concomitant. In children with obesity, NAFLD is present in nearly one-third of boys and one-fourth of girls.
More Related Videos
09:27Analysis of Liver Microenvironment During Early Progression of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Zebrafish
Published on: April 1, 2021
11:08The Use of Gas Chromatography to Analyze Compositional Changes of Fatty Acids in Rat Liver Tissue during Pregnancy
Published on: March 13, 2014
Related Concept Videos
01:08Prevalence and Incidence
Prevalence indicates the proportion of individuals in a population who have a specific disease or health...
01:26Diseases of the Liver and Gallbladder
Cirrhosis is characterized by the scarring of hepatic lobules in the liver, which are replaced by fibrous tissue, affecting the liver's normal functioning. NAFLD, on the other hand, is caused by an excessive build-up of fat in the liver, not...
01:24Obesity
01:22Effect of Hepatic Disease on Pharmacokinetics: Pathophysiologic Assessment and Liver Function Test
01:21Drug Dosing: Obese Patients
01:28Overview of Fatty Acid Metabolism
Fatty acids are catabolized in a process called beta-oxidation, which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria and converts their fatty acid chains into two-carbon units of acetyl groups. The acetyl...