Kids with Fatty Liver Face Increased Heart Risk

Overweight or obese children who are suffering from fatty liver disease might be at increased risk for metabolic syndrome, a precursor to cardiovascular disease; these are the findings of a study by researchers at the University of California that has been published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver disease in children. NAFLD has already been linked to metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of risk factors that boost a person’s chances of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. This disease is indicated by the presence of oily droplets of triglycerides in liver cells. There are an estimated 6 million children in the US currently affected by NAFLD.

For their study, researchers led by Dr. Jeffrey B. Schwimmer studied 150 boys and girls with an average age of 12.7 years with NAFLD. All the children had been referred to a specialised clinic for obesity and/or fatty liver disease. Another 150 children with similar degree of obesity but without NAFLD were covered as controls.

The researchers found that compared to the controls, overweight children who also had NAFLD had significantly higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease on account of factors such as higher levels of fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol), triglycerides, and higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure. These children also had markedly lower levels of the “good”, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) than the control group.

Overall, the researchers found that 50 percent of the children in the NAFLD group actually had metabolic syndrome compared to just 15 percent of the children without fatty liver. The reverse was also found to be true with children with metabolic syndrome having five times the risk of having NAFLD compared to overweight children without metabolic syndrome.

“Our results demonstrate that obese children and adolescents with a definitive diagnosis of NAFLD have a more severe cardiovascular risk profile than their age, sex and BMI-matched peers,” said Dr. Schwimmer. “These collective data illustrate that fat accumulation in the liver may play a more important role than obesity itself in determining the risk for ‘weight-related’ metabolic co-morbidities. Thus, in children and adolescents, NAFLD may serve as a marker to stratify the cardiovascular risk of overweight and obese patients.”

“The identification of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in a child should prompt global counselling to address nutrition, physical activity, and avoidance of smoking to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Schwimmer and colleagues concluded.

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