The relationship between serum transaminase activities and fatty liver in children with simple obesity

To determine hepatic diseases in obese children, biochemically and histologically, 11 obese patients with abnormal serum transaminase activities were subjected to this study. Fat accumulation in the liver was semiquantitatively graded, and histologically the 11 patients were classified into four groups; fatty liver, fatty hepatitis, fatty fibrosis and fatty cirrhosis. All patients had fat deposition in liver specimens, the grade of which did not significantly correlate with the degree of obesity. The grade of fat deposition in the liver specimens also did not significantly correlate with either serum transaminase activities or GOT/GPT ratio. Five patients were grouped into the fatty liver group, three into the fatty hepatitis group, and the remaining three patients into the fatty fibrosis group. However, no significant differences were found among the three histologically classified groups in terms of serum transaminase activities or GOT/GPT ratio. The usefulness of serum transaminase activities and GOT/GPT ratio was limited in predicting the severity of fat deposition or histological abnormality in pediatric obese patients.