Jacopo Troisi1, Federica Belmonte2, Antonella Bisogno2, Olga Lausi2, Francesca Marciano2, Pierpaolo Cavallo3, Salvatore Guercio Nuzio2, Annamaria Landolfi2, Luca Pierri2, Pietro Vajro4. 1. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana" Pediatrics Section, University of Salerno, Baronissi, Salerno, Italy; Theoreo srl, Montecorvino Pugliano, Salerno, Italy; European Biomedical Research Institute of Salerno (EBRIS), Salerno, Italy. Electronic address: troisi@theoreosrl.com. 2. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana" Pediatrics Section, University of Salerno, Baronissi, Salerno, Italy. 3. Department of Physics, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Salerno, Italy. 4. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana" Pediatrics Section, University of Salerno, Baronissi, Salerno, Italy; European Laboratory for Food Induced Intestinal Diseases (ELFID), Naples, Italy.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The pediatric obesity epidemic calls for the noninvasive detection of individuals at higher risk of complications. AIMS: To investigate the diagnostic role of combined salivary uric acid (UA), glucose and insulin levels to screen noninvasively for metabolic syndrome (MetS) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. METHODS: Medical history, clinical, anthropometric, and laboratory data including serum triglyceride, glucose, insulin, HOMA, HDL-cholesterol, and UA levels of 23 obese children (15 with [St+] and 8 without [St-] ultrasonographic hepatic steatosis) and 18 normal weight controls were considered. RESULTS: Serum and salivary UA (p < 0.05; R2 = 0.51), insulin (p < 0.0001; R2 = 0.79), and HOMA (p < 0.0001; R2 = 0.79) levels were significantly correlated; however their values tended to be only slightly higher in the obese patients, predominately in [St+], than in the controls. Notably, UA and insulin levels in both fluids increased in parallel to the number of MetS components. After conversion of the z-logit function including salivary/anthropometric parameters in a stepwise logistic regression analysis, a factor of 0.5 allowed for predicting hepatic steatosis with high sensitivity, specificity, and total accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Salivary testing together with selected anthropometric parameters helps to identify noninvasively obese children with hepatic steatosis and/or having MetS components.
BACKGROUND: The pediatric obesity epidemic calls for the noninvasive detection of individuals at higher risk of complications. AIMS: To investigate the diagnostic role of combined salivary uric acid (UA), glucose and insulin levels to screen noninvasively for metabolic syndrome (MetS) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. METHODS: Medical history, clinical, anthropometric, and laboratory data including serum triglyceride, glucose, insulin, HOMA, HDL-cholesterol, and UA levels of 23 obesechildren (15 with [St+] and 8 without [St-] ultrasonographic hepatic steatosis) and 18 normal weight controls were considered. RESULTS: Serum and salivary UA (p < 0.05; R2 = 0.51), insulin (p < 0.0001; R2 = 0.79), and HOMA (p < 0.0001; R2 = 0.79) levels were significantly correlated; however their values tended to be only slightly higher in the obesepatients, predominately in [St+], than in the controls. Notably, UA and insulin levels in both fluids increased in parallel to the number of MetS components. After conversion of the z-logit function including salivary/anthropometric parameters in a stepwise logistic regression analysis, a factor of 0.5 allowed for predicting hepatic steatosis with high sensitivity, specificity, and total accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Salivary testing together with selected anthropometric parameters helps to identify noninvasively obesechildren with hepatic steatosis and/or having MetS components.
Authors: Anna Di Sessa; Grazia Cirillo; Stefano Guarino; Pierluigi Marzuillo; Emanuele Miraglia Del Giudice Journal: Pediatric Health Med Ther Date: 2019-08-23