The comparison of gray-scale and Color-Doppler ultrasonographic findings with chemical biomarkers in children with fatty liver

Abstract

The aim of this study is to comparison of gray-scale and Color-Doppler ultrasonographic findings with chemical biomarkers in children with fatty liver. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, children aged 2-15 years referred to Tabriz Children's Hospital in 2019 who were screened and selected were sonographed with the possibility of fatty liver by a gastroenterologist based on their history and clinical examination and the existence of obesity criteria (BMI more than 95th percentile) and overweight (BMI between percentiles 85 to 95), and cases in which fatty liver was positive (28 children) were studied. First, the necessary explanations about the plan were given to the parents of the children and then the informed consent of the patients' parents was obtained and entered into the study. Sampling was done by availability. After blood sampling, biochemical markers including ALT and AST were measured by routine tests based on enzymatic activity with an autoanalyzer. Also, patients' livers were evaluated by a radiologist using Gray scale and Color-Doppler ultrasonic devices. The grade or degree of fatty liver disease was determined from 0 to 3. Results: In this study, the mean (standard deviation) age of the subjects was 7.71 (±3.5) years. Also, the mean (SD) of body mass index was 21.06 (±3.4) kg / m2. Based on laboratory findings, the mean (SD) of triglyceride in the subjects of this study was 174.64 (±40.9) mg/dl. Also, their mean (SD) cholesterol was 164.14 (±38.2) mg/dl. The median (25th and 75th percentages) of total bilirubin and direct bilirubin in the subjects of this study were 1.0 (0.7-1.1) and 0.2 (0.2-0.2) mg/dl, respectively. The mean (SD) of ALP, ALT and AST were 860.54 (±216), 72.29 (±27.5) and 82.21 (±28.4) units per liter. According to Gray scale findings, 20 cases (71.4%) had a fatty liver grade I and 8 cases (28.6%) had a fatty liver grade II. On the other hand, according to Color-Doppler findings, all subjects were 28 (0.100%) healthy. Among all the studied variables, none of them, including: triglyceride, cholesterol, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, ALP, ALT and AST, were not observed a statistically significant difference between the two groups of patients with fatty liver grade I and II in subjects based on Gray scale findings (P-value>0.05).