IMPE Abstracts

Background: Emerging scientific evidence has revealed the connection between iron metabolism and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The liver is the major iron storage organ and is considered a marker of total body iron stores. Liver biopsy is invasive and biased, therefore iron measurement by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a widely accepted method. Actually, there are no studies evaluating the presence of hepatic iron overload in patients with youth-onset type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To evaluate liver iron content in adolescents with youth-onset type 2 diabetes measured by MRI and compare it with liver iron content in healthy adolescents.

Methodology: An observational, cross-sectional, comparative and retrolective study was carried out that included 2 groups: adolescents with youth-onset type 2 diabetes in medical management at the Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez and healthy adolescents. Liver iron quantification was performed by MRI.

Results: We included 11 healthy adolescents and 16 adolescents with youth-onset type 2 diabetes between 9 and 18 years of age. No significant difference was found in the measurement of hepatic iron content between two groups P= 0.182 [healthy 1.4 mg/g (1.1 – 1.8) vs DM2 1.6 mg/g (1.1 – 33)]. We found a positive correlation of moderate magnitude (Rho=0.59) between the quantification of iron and the fat fraction in the liver.

Conclusions: The multifactorial etiology of type 2 diabetes is complex and requires further study of associated factors such as iron storage in the liver. The harmful effect of excess hepatic iron should be studied from childhood and could be considered as a potential long-term therapeutic target in populations at risk.