The occurrence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in overweight offsprings of patients with premature myocardial infarction

Objective: To investigate the joint occurrence of the roots of metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents with high risk for cardiovascular disease.

Methods: 287 children and adolescents (age between 6–18 years) were investigated, whose parents suffered acute myocardial infarction before the age of 55, and whose body mass indices were over 95 percentiles. Blood pressure measurements were obtained through 24 hours by a Meditech 002 ambulatory blood pressure monitor. Serum trigliceryde, blood glucose levels, GPT, γGT and ALP enzyme activities were measured. We performed 3 hour-long oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT). The fatty liver disease was indicated by abdominal ultrasound imaging.

Results: We recorded characteristic ultrasound findings for fatty liver disease in 41 overweight offsprings (15%). In 18 of them the serum transaminase enzyme activity was moderately increased. Besides the obesity we found 3 signs (hypertension, pathologic OGTT curve and hypertrigliceridemia) in 11 cases, 2 signs in 16 further cases.

Conclusions: In overweight children and adolescents with a family history with high risk for cardiovascular disease both the roots of the metabolic syndrome and the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are more frequent than in the normal and the overweight population according to published data. During the examination of these patients performance of abdominal ultrasound is recommended, because the elevation in enzyme activities could predict in some cases the development of later non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis.