Ideal cardiovascular health and liver enzyme levels in European adolescents; the HELENA study

• Idoia Labayen ^[1] ; Jonatan R. Ruiz ^[2] ; Inge Huybrechts ^[3] ; Francisco B. Ortega ^[2] ; Manuel Castillo ^[2] ; Michael Sjöstrom ^[10] ; Marcela González-Gross ^[4] ; Yannis Manios ^[5] ; Kurt Widhalm ^[6] ; Anthony Kafatos ^[7] ; Christina Breidenassel ^[8] ; Gerardo Rodríguez ^[9] ; Jean Dallongeville ^[11] ; Frédéric Gottrand ^[12] ; Luis A. Moreno ^[9]
  1. [1] Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Leioa, España

     
  2. [2] Universidad de Granada

     Universidad de Granada

     Granada, España

     
  3. [3] Ghent University

     Ghent University

     Arrondissement Gent, Bélgica

     
  4. [4] Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

     Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  5. [5] Harokopio University

     Harokopio University

     Dimos Athens, Grecia

     
  6. [6] Medical University of Vienna

     Medical University of Vienna

     Innere Stadt, Austria

     
  7. [7] University of Crete

     University of Crete

     Dimos Heraklion, Grecia

     
  8. [8] University of Bonn

     University of Bonn

     Kreisfreie Stadt Bonn, Alemania

     
  9. [9] Universidad de Zaragoza

     Universidad de Zaragoza

     Zaragoza, España

     
  10. [10] Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge. Sweden
  11. [11] INSERM, U744. Univ Lille Nord de France
  12. [12] Jeanne de Flandre Children’s University Hospital, Lille. France

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• Localización: Journal of physiology and biochemistry, ISSN-e 1877-8755, ISSN 1138-7548, Vol. 73, Nº. 2, 2017, págs. 225-234
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • There is an increasing interest for the role of liver enzymes as predictors of non-liver-related morbidity and mortality. The American Heart Association (AHA) described the ideal cardiovascular health concept as a score of seven cardiovascular health behaviors and factors that can be used to monitor and predict ideal cardiovascular health over time. This study aimed to examine the association of the ideal cardiovascular health (ICH), as defined by the AHA, with liver enzyme levels in European adolescents. A total of 637 adolescents (54.6% females), aged 14.6 ± 1.2 years from nine European countries participated in this cross-sectional study. Blood levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and gamma-glutamyltransferase were measured and the AST/ALT ratio calculated. Ideal cardiovascular health was defined as meeting ideal levels of the following components: four behaviors (smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and diet) and three factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose). A higher number of ideal cardiovascular health behaviors, factors, and ideal cardiovascular health index were associated with lower ALT (P < 0.05, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (P < 0.001, P < 0.01, and P < 0.001, respectively) levels. Similarly, a higher number of ideal cardiovascular health behaviors (P < 0.01), factors (P < 0.01), and ideal cardiovascular health index (P < 0.001) were associated with a higher aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase ratio. These findings reinforce the usefulness of the ICH index as an instrument to identify target individuals and promote cardiovascular health in adolescents, and it also extends these observations to the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome.