Prevalence of fatty liver using ultrasound in male high-school pupils without history of liver disease and its relationship with liver enzymes, body mass index and waist - hip ratio

None Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the most common form of chronic liver disease and includes a wide range of clinical symptoms (from asymptomatic fatty liver to severe liver inflammation with fibrosis and even cirrhosis). Metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes, are major causes of NAFLD. As urban and sedentary lifestyle and poor diet lead to weight gain and obesity in individuals, this disease appears in an early age. Due to the reversible nature of this disease, detection and prevention of it could be useful for decreasing the onset of the diseases. This study investigated the prevalence of None Alcoholic Fatty Liver disease using ultrasound in male students without history of liver disease and its relationship with liver enzymes, Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) in boys aged 15 to 18 years to estimate the prevalence of disease in this age group in order to carry out the necessary preventive tasks. For this purpose, BMI and WHR of 2028 male students were measured. 107 of these had BMI over 30 and WHR over 0.9 and of these 44 patients, who were willing to cooperate voluntary in this study, were evaluated in regard to the risk of having fatty liver using ultrasound, blood tests and liver enzymes (AST, ALT). Ultrasound was performed by the same radiologist and presence of fatty liver was graded according to the standard international definitions. Then the students were sent for blood testing (FBS, TG, CHOL, LDL, HDL, ALT, and AST) to same laboratory. Mean age of subjects was 15.7 years. All of them had fatty liver. In this study there was a significant relationship between WHR, BMI and weight with liver enzymes, while significant relationship was not observed between liver enzymes and FBS, TG, CHOL, LDL and HDL. Also there was significant relation between grading of fatty liver with BMI, WHR, body weight and HDL and not any significant relationship with other factors. Relatively high frequency of liver disease in this age group was seen and it seems the high school boys who are overweight and have a BMI over 30 are more likely to have fatty liver. For prevention of the metabolic problems in elderly one must identify these individuals early for taking actions regarding their lifestyle and proper nutrition. The results of this research suggest the conduction of further studies for prevention of obesity in this group with the aim of decreasing the risk of NAFLD with suitable physical activity and good diet.