The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics 2022 , Vol 64 , Num 3
Urinary C-peptide creatinine ratio is a significant indicator of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children with obesity
Hekma Saad Farghaly 1 ,Kotb Abbass Metwalley 1 ,Yasser Gamal 1 ,Ghada Mohamed Saied 2 ,Yasser Farouk 1
1 Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
2 Departments of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
DOI : 10.24953/turkjped.2022.41 Background. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the commonest etiology of chronic hepatic problems in children with obesity. This study aimed to assess whether urinary C-peptide creatinine ratio (UCPCR) might be a potential indicator of NAFLD in obese children.

Methods. The study included 240 children with simple obesity. Hepatic ultrasonic examination, anthropometric and laboratory measurements including fasting plasma glucose, fasting insulin, fasting C peptide, liver, renal profile, lipid profile, and UCPCR were obtained in all cases. According to the results of the hepatic ultrasonography, cases were classified into two categories, those with NAFLD (n=98) and without NAFLD (n= 142).

Results. In cases with NAFLD, UCPCR was significantly higher than those without NAFLD (P < 0.001). A significant positive correlation between UCPCR and waist circumference (WC SDS), triglyceride, fasting C-peptide, HOMA-IR and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was found (P < 0.001 for each). Adjusting for other variables, UCPCR was the most significant predictor of NAFLD in children with obesity with higher odds ratio (OR = 3.26) than fasting C peptide (OR = 2.87), triglyceride (OR = 1.89), ALT (OR = 2.20), WC SDS (OR = 1.32) and age (OR=1.27) . UCPCR cut-off value of 0.755 nmol/mmol was able to discriminate cases with NAFLD from those without NAFLD with a sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 87%.

Conclusions. We concluded that UCPCR is a useful, practical and non-invasive predictor of NAFLD in children with obesity with high sensitivity and specificity. Keywords : non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, urinary C-peptide creatinine ratio, obesity, fasting C- peptide, insulin resistance

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