Minerva pediatrica
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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in Albanian overweight children.
Overweight and obesity has emerged as a significant global health problem in the pediatric population. Childhood non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a common and important liver disease. Although mostly benign, some children with NAFLD develop fibrosis and in some case cirrhosis. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of NAFLD/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in overweight Albanian children, to evaluate the demographic and biochemical details and to assess the association between the severity of fatty liver changes and demographic and biochemical abnormalities. ⋯ NAFLD/NASH was frequent among our cohort of overweight children (68.7% and 23.7%). Weight, waist, BM, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, fasting serum Insulinemia and HOMA-IR are independent predictors of liver steatosis in overweight children. Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, especially when are associated with elevate values of ALT level, are strong independent risk factors in developing NAFLD/NASH.