Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Oct 2;25(1):700.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-025-05943-8.

Value of elevated 1-hour post-load plasma glucose level in identifying risk of MAFLD in non-diabetic obese children and adolescents

Xiaoxiao Liu #  1 , Zesheng Peng #  1 , Shifeng Ma  1 , Fei Liu  1 , Mingyue Liu  1 , Xiaowen Li  1 , Rongxiu Zheng  2
Affiliations

Value of elevated 1-hour post-load plasma glucose level in identifying risk of MAFLD in non-diabetic obese children and adolescents

Xiaoxiao Liu et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the potential value of 1-h post-load plasma glucose level in patients who are prone to suffer from metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) in a group of non-diabetic obese children and adolescents.

Methods: Cardio-metabolic risk factors, oral glucose tolerance test outcomes, and Liver ultrasonic examination results were analyzed in 406 non-diabetic obese children and adolescents. Patients were divided into 4 groups: normal glucose tolerance with 1-h plasma glucose (NGT with 1-h PG) < 8.6 mmol/L, NGT with 1-h PG ≥ 8.6 mmol/L, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

Results: In this study, 406 non-diabetic children and adolescents with obesity (249 males, 157 females, mean age: 11.71 ± 2.22 years) were included. Among them, 286 (70.4%) had NGT, 30 (7.4%) had IFG, and 90 (22.2%) had IGT. As compared with NGT with 1-h PG < 8.6 mmol/L, NGT with 1-h PG ≥ 8.6 mmol/L and IGT groups demonstrated significantly higher body fat percentage, obesity family history, triglycerides, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST). After adjusting for age, sex, and BMI z-score, the 1-h PG level demonstrated significant positive correlations with ALT (Spearman's ρ = 0.12, P = 0.018), AST (ρ = 0.15, P = 0.003), and GGT (ρ = 0.21, P < 0.001). In the multivariable-adjusted logistic regression model controlling for age, sex, BMI z-score, body fat percentage, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance and glycosylated hemoglobin, individuals with NGT and 1-h PG ≥ 8.6 mmol/L exhibited 1.882-fold higher odds of MAFLD (95% CI 1.045-3.388), while the IGT group showed significantly elevated odds (OR = 1.980, 95% CI 1.056-3.709). No statistically significant association was observed in the IFG group.

Conclusion: These data suggest that NGT with 1-h PG ≥ 8.6 mmol/L in non-diabetic obese pediatric patients can facilitate identifying individuals at higher risk of MAFLD.

Keywords: 1-h post-load plasma glucose; Metabolic associated fatty liver disease; Oral glucose tolerance test.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The data were obtained from medical records in our department, without disclosing personal identity information. This work was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Academy of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital (ZYY-IRB-SOP-016(F)-002-04). Consent for publication: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Changes of plasma glucose and insulin in different groups of children and adolescents during OGTT
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation between 1 h PG level and ALT, AST, GGT
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Eslam M, Sanyal AJ, George J. MAFLD: A Consensus-Driven proposed nomenclature for metabolic associated fatty liver disease. Gastroenterology. 2020;158(7):1999–2014. e1991. - PubMed
    1. Eslam M, Newsome PN, Sarin SK, Anstee QM, Targher G, Romero-Gomez M, et al. A new definition for metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease: an international expert consensus statement. J Hepatol. 2020;73(1):202–9. - PubMed
    1. Xing Y, Fan J, Wang HJ, Wang H. Comparison of MAFLD and NAFLD Characteristics in Children. Child (Basel Switzerland). 2023;10(3):560. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim D, Konyn P, Sandhu KK, Dennis BB, Cheung AC, Ahmed A. Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease is associated with increased all-cause mortality in the united States. J Hepatol. 2021;75(6):1284–91. - PubMed
    1. Kaya E, Yilmaz Y. Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD): A Multi-systemic disease beyond the liver. J Clin Translational Hepatol. 2022;10(2):329–38. - PMC - PubMed