Echocardiography Evaluation as a Marker of Cardiovascular Risk on Obese Children and Adolescents

Overweight prevalence is very high nowadays in Brazil. In view of this scenery, it becomes necessary early detection of cardiovascular abnormalities presented in pediatric obesity. Cardiovascular abnormalities of obese children can be detected by echocardiography. The transthoracic heart echocardiography assesses with precision and in real time, the heart structure and functioning by means of echocardiography parameters and this allows early detection of diastolic function alterations and left ventricular geometry modifications that are common in obese adults, but less explored in children and adolescents. These considerations justified the proposal of this study that aimed to compare echocardiography parameters (left ventricular geometry), and values obtained for systolic pressure, among non-obese and obese adolescents and children. Seventy one children and adolescents with ages between seven and eleven years from Public Health System of Ribeirão Preto region participated of the study. From each participant it was obtained personal and anthropometric data. Then, they were submitted to echocardiographic evaluation. Finally they were stratified in accordance with nutritional status: obese and non-obese. Statistical analysis was performed using the Fischer's exact test and non-paired t-test. Results showed that the groups were homogenous in relation to the age and genders, but weren't homogenous about the waist circumference, that were greater in obese ones. When comparing the left ventricle mass index, (left ventricle mass was divided by height squared), this index showed greatest values in obese that the non-obese. When comparing the systolic and diastolic blood pressure in obese and eutrophic children, the greatest values for systolic and diastolic blood pressure were observed in obese adolescents and children. We concluded that obese children and adolescents have higher risk of modifications on cardiac structure and hypertension.