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. 2018 Jul 4;18(1):140.
doi: 10.1186/s12872-018-0874-5.

Metabolically healthy and metabolically unhealthy obese children both have increased carotid intima-media thickness: a case control study

Giovanni Farello  1   2 , Annarita Antenucci  3 , Stefano Stagi  4 , Chiara Mazzocchetti  3 , Franco Ciocca  5 , Alberto Verrotti  3
Affiliations

Metabolically healthy and metabolically unhealthy obese children both have increased carotid intima-media thickness: a case control study

Giovanni Farello et al. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. .

Abstract

Background: The cardiovascular disease risk was assessed in metabolically healthy obese (MHO) children, obese children with metabolic disorders (MUO), and to a control group of normal-weight children using carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT).

Methods: Participants were 204 obese children (114 M, 90 F), including 162 MUO (74 M, 88 F) and 42 MHO (24 M, 18 F), and 99 gender- and age-matched controls (45 M, 54 F). Glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and other serum values were determined in peripheral blood. Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, and a carotid Doppler ultrasound scan were also acquired. The mean CIMT of obese subjects and controls was compared by analysis of variance. Abnormality of even one of the metabolic parameters assessed involved assignation to the MUO group. Mean CIMT was compared in MHO and MUO children.

Results: Mean CIMT in control children was 402.97 ± 53.18 μm (left carotid artery) and 377.85 ± 52.47 μm (right carotid artery). In MHO and MUO patients CIMT was respectively 453.29 ± 62.04 and 460.17 ± 92.22 μm (left carotid artery) and 446.36 ± 49.21 and 456.30 ± 85.7 μm (right carotid artery). The mean CIMT was not significantly different in MUO and MHO children, whereas it showed a significant difference between both groups of obese children and controls (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: CIMT was significantly greater in obese patients, also in those without metabolic alterations, than in normal-weight children. Obesity is therefore an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease in itself, also in the absence of metabolic abnormalities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study received the approval of the Local Ethics Committee of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of L’Aquila. Prior to the start of the study, parents or caregivers signed an informed consent form.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean left CIMT in control subjects and MUO and MHO patients
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean right CIMT values in control subjects and MUO and MHO patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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