الفهرس 
NONALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE
CLINICAL FEATURES:Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming one of the most serious complications of obesity in children and adolescents (1). The incidence of NAFLD is rising as the children obesity increases. NAFLD is a clinical spectrum ranging from steatosis (fatty infiltration of the liver) to steatosis with inflammation, necrosis, fibrosis and cirrhosis (3). Advanced stages of NAFLD significantly results in the increase in liver disease- related mortality. Therefore, early diagnosis and management of NAFLD would effectively improve its prognosis. It is necessary to identify simple and sensitive indicators for the prediction of NAFLD because liver biopsy, a gold standard procedure in the diagnosis of NAFLD, is an invasive procedure. Even though abdominal ultrasonogram can be used as a screening tool, it cannot be used in large community- based screening programs (6). Since NAFLD is associated with risk factors of obesity, the anthropometric measures could play an important role in the prediction of NAFLD. This study aimed to highlight the predictive capacity of the anthropometric clinical indicators for NAFLD and to assess their correlation to the degree and various laboratory parameters of NAFLD in children and adolescents. This prospective case-control study was conducted on 80 overweight/obese children and adolescents. Their ages ranged from 4 to 16 years with a mean of 11.18±2.72 years. They were divided into two groups: 40 cases with NAFLD diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound and 40 cases without NAFLD. Twenty healthy age- and sex- matched children served as controls.