Background The growing obesity pandemic is the leading cause for increasing prevalence of
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children. Histopathological evaluation of the liver
remains the gold standard for NAFLD diagnosis, but it is an invasive procedure with a low but real
risk of morbidity and mortality. The current study evaluated circulating chemerin and adiponectin
as possible noninvasive diagnostic markers for NAFLD in obese non-diabetic children.
Methods A prospective case-control study was conducted, which included 101 obese children
with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 57 age- and sex-matched controls. The overall mean age of
the children was 10.08±3.12 years. All underwent a full clinical assessment, routine laboratory
investigation, and abdominal ultrasound. Homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance was
calculated and circulating chemerin and adiponectin were evaluated using ELISA.
Results Elevated serum chemerin and decreased serum adiponectin were significantly associated
with an increased likelihood of exhibiting NAFLD. Receiver operator characteristic curve
analysis for differentiation of NAFLD patients from those in the control group demonstrated that
chemerin, at a cutoff value of 186.7 ng/mL, yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 56.44% and
87.72% respectively (P