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Vitamin E did not affect ALT, histological improvements among children with NAFLD, NASH
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Adjuvant vitamin E therapy did not have an improved, greater effect over placebo on children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, according to data from a recent study.
Researchers conducted a systematic review of five studies drawn from Medline, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and clinicaltrials.gov between January 1980 and September 2012 that involved vitamin E as an intervention, alone or combined with another treatment.
The trials compared vitamin E, regardless of dose or duration, to at least one control group to determine its role in normalizing alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and effect on histology improvement among children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Of the included trials, 270 patients (aged younger than 18 years) were diagnosed with radiological or histological NAFLD or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
All five studies reported changes in ALT, but meta-analysis showed that adjuvant vitamin E did not have an effect over placebo in normalizing ALT (P=.77). Sensitivity analysis revealed that higher doses of vitamin E, a longer treatment period or adding vitamin C did not impact the measured outcome. Histological outcomes, reported in two studies, showed heterogeneity.
“To the best of our knowledge, our systematic review and meta-analysis is the first published study in the pediatric field,” the researchers wrote. “Our meta-analyses results are consistent with the results from other meta-analyses performed on adult patients, where no significant effect of vitamin E was found on ALT levels among NAFLD/NASH patients.
“Data on the long-term effects of adjuvant vitamin E on histological improvements in pediatric NAFLD are still lacking. Thus far, lifestyle interventions are the only proven therapeutic intervention for NAFLD in children.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.