STEATOSIS AND HEPATIC FIBROSIS IN PEDIATRIC POPULATION WITH OVERWEIGHT OR OBESITY BY TRANSITION ELASTOGRAPHY.

Introduction and Objectives

Childhood obesity is a serious and increasingly prevalent problem in the world and in our country. The association of obesity and hepatic steatosis in early stages may be a predictor of hepatic fibrosis and the development of cirrhosis.

To determine the frequency of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis and their grades with transitional elastography in overweight or obese children, and to analyze the association between fibrosis and steatosis with sex.

Materials and Methods

Descriptive, cross-sectional, observational and analytical study of children with overweight or obesity. Descriptive statistics were used with measures of central tendency and dispersion, the association between fibrosis and steatosis with sex was evaluated using Chi-square test with Bonferroni correction, with significance level p ≤.05.

Results

129 patients were included with 11±2.6 years, 64 boys (49.6%) and 65 girls (50.4%), they were classified: 26 (20.2%) with overweight, 76 (58.9%) with GI Obesity, 23 (17.8%) G2 and 4 (3.1%) with G3 95 (73. 6%) have steatosis, and 73 (56.4%) had some degree of fibrosis; No association was found between sex and steatosis or fibrosis χ2(1)=3.46; p=0.64 nor for steatosis F χ2(3)=3.74; p=0.290. (Figure 1).

Conclusions

We found a high prevalence of grade III steatosis and grade I fibrosis in this pediatric population that could in the long term condition the development of cirrhosis. We did not find an association between sex steatosis and fibrosis, perhaps because there is still no change in hormones.

Conflict of interest: None