Amount of hepatic fat predicts cardiovascular risk independent of insulin resistance among Hispanic-American adolescents

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged as the major pediatric chronic liver disease, and it is estimated to affect more than one third of obese children in the U.S. Cardiovascular complications are a leading cause of increased mortality in adults with NAFLD and many adolescents with NAFLD already manifest signs of subclinical atherosclerosis including increased carotid intima-media thickness. METHODS: Volume of intrahepatic fat was assessed in 50 Hispanic-American, overweight adolescents, using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Lipoprotein compositions were measured using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. RESULTS: Plasma triglycerides (TG) (p = 0.003), TG/HDL ratio (p = 0.006), TG/apoB ratio (p = 0.011), large VLDL concentration (p = 0.019), VLDL particle size (p = 0.012), as well as small dense LDL concentration (p = 0.026) progressively increased across higher levels of hepatic fat severity, while large HDL concentration progressively declined (p = 0.043). This pattern of associations remained even after controlling for gender, BMI, visceral fat, and insulin resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that increased hepatic fat is strongly associated with peripheral dyslipidemia and the amount of fat in the liver may influence cardiovascular risk. Further studies are needed to longitudinally monitor dyslipidemia in children with NAFLD and to examine whether the reduction of hepatic fat would attenuate their long-term CVD risk.