Hepatic steatosis prevalence among adolescents is increasing. The aims of our study were to assess the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in adolescents undergoing an emergency or inpatient abdominal ultrasound (US) and to assess documentation in medical charts, follow-up and correlation with alanine transaminase (ALT) levels.

Ethics approval for a retrospective study obtained. All abdominal US studies foradolescents (aged 10 to 19) performed during emergency presentation or inpatientstay in one of three hospitals (Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia) over a period often years (2011 to 2020) were reviewed. Radiology reports were reviewed fordescription of liver parenchyma and echotexture. Presence of hepatic steatosis,other descriptions related to liver parenchyma and focal lesions were noted.Indications for abdominal US were noted from the clinical requests.Medical records were reviewed for patients with hepatic steatosis on radiologyreports. We...

Abdominal US reports for 1596 adolescents during the study period were reviewed.Of those, 726 US studies did not include the liver in the radiology report and wereexcluded. A total of 870 adolescents were included in the final assessment. The median age was 17 years (interquartile range [IQR], 15-18) with a female predominance (572 [65.7%]). A total of 87 (10.0%) patients had hepatic steatosis reported. Documentation in medical charts was noted in 48 of the 87 patients (55.2%) for whom steatosis was reported. Follow-up and referral...

Prevalence of hepatic steatosis among hospitalized Australian adolescents is 10%. Appropriate documentation, investigation and follow-up of steatosis in this population is lacking leading to potential missed opportunities in addressing this condition and preventing future complications.

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