Possible prediction of obesity-related liver disease in children and adolescents using indices of body composition

Magnus Jung Johansen, Morten Asp Vonsild Lund, Lars Ängquist, Cilius Esmann Fonvig, Louise Aas Holm, Elizaveta Chabanova, Henrik S. Thomsen, Torben Hansen, Jens Christian Holm*

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

3 Citationer (Scopus)
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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.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftPediatric Obesity
Vol/bind17
Udgave nummer10
Antal sider11
ISSN2047-6302
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
BRIDGE ‐ Translational Excellence Programme, Grant/Award Number: NNF18SA0034956; Innovation Fund Denmark, Grant/Award Numbers: 0603‐00484B, 603‐00457B; The Novo Nordisk Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: NNF15OC0016544, NNF15OC0016692; The Region Zealand Health Scientific Research Foundation Funding information 1

Funding Information:
This study is part of the research activities in TARGET, BIOCHILD, Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme ‘MicrobLiver’ and the Holbaek study (formerly known as The Danish Childhood Obesity Biobank). The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research is an independent research center at University of Copenhagen partially funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The authors wish to thank Oda Troest and Birgitte Holløse for logistical support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Pediatric Obesity published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of World Obesity Federation.

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