Childhood fatty liver disease: a "ticking time-bomb"

Gut, An International Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology just published this alarming commentary on a paper published in the same issue that documents the penetration of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) into the childhood age group. They define NAFLD: "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common form of chronic liver disease in both children and adults and threatens to become a serious public health problem worldwide.^{1 2} It is closely associated with obesity and insulin resistance..." and continue to observe, "This study provides the most convincing evidence thus far that NAFLD in children can be a progressive disease with the potential for progression to end-stage liver disease requiring liver transplantation (LT)...the identification and validation of non-invasive markers capable of identifying children with NAFLD and those most likely to develop advanced disease is urgently required to assist in the management of children at risk of NAFLD...before it becomes a major cause of death in the most of the Western world.." This is a natural consequence of the huge increase in obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes (formerly an ailment confined to adults) in children.