Preclinical changes in the mechanical properties of abdominal aorta in obese children
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The study population consisted of 100 obese children (60% males; mean age, 10.0 ± 2.6 years) consecutively recruited from subjects attending the Outpatient Center for Pediatric Obesity and Endocrinology of Cardarelli Hospital in Naples, Italy.
Obesity was defined as BMI greater tham the 95th percentile of the reference values stated in the Centers for Disease Control growth chart.18
The control group consisted of 50 children, who were relatives or friends of the obese children studied. The groups
Results
The clinical characteristics of the study groups are presented in Table 1. Years of education of children parents were similar in the 2 groups (mean ± SD, 8.9 ± 3.0 in obese v 8.5 ± 3.2 years in the control group, P = .45). Compared to controls, obese children had higher blood pressure values and higher concentrations of total cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, and C-reactive protein. HOMA, a parameter of insulin resistance, was significantly higher in obese children than in controls.
Elastic
Discussion
Epidemiological studies have shown that obesity in childhood predicts not only obesity in adulthood,21 but also an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.22, 23 Furthermore, postmortem studies suggested that obese children were at increased atherosclerotic risk.7, 8, 24
In recent years, the development of noninvasive methods has allowed the detection of in vivo abnormalities in arterial structure and function in childhood and adolescence.15, 16, 25, 26, 27
In the present study,
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