Prevalence of incidental sonographic findings of hepatic steatosis in children under 4 years of age.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The age of onset of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its prevalence in young children is incompletely understood. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the prevalence of ultrasound findings of hepatic steatosis in a cohort of children less than 4 years of age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an institutional review board-approved retrospective review of ultrasounds performed on children less than 4 years of age from January 2022 to August 2022 at a single quaternary care center. Two independent blinded reviewers evaluated for qualitative and semi-quantitative findings of hepatic steatosis. Per prior literature, hepatorenal index (HRI)>1.75 was used as a threshold suggestive of hepatic steatosis. Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U test, and logistic regression analyses were performed for univariable and multivariable statistical analyses. Kappa statistics were used to assess agreement between reviewers. RESULTS: Eighty-five males and 102 females, median age of 1.1 years (interquartile range 2.1 years), were included. Qualitative findings of hepatic steatosis were seen in 26/187 (14%; 95% CI 10-20%). An HRI>1.75 was present in 15/187 (8%; 95% CI 5-13%) of examinations, including 11 females and 4 males, and 7/123 (6%) participants <2 years old. Among participants with overweight or obesity, 8/43 (19%) had HRI>1.75 vs. 7/144 (5%) participants without overweight or obesity (P=0.004). Each percentile increase in anthropometrics percentile (weight-to-length or BMI, depending on age) was associated with 22 increased odds of HRI>1.75 (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Prevalence of sonographic findings of hepatic steatosis in an unselected sample of preschool-age children is 8-14%, and are more common in participants with overweight/obesity.