Early echocardiography abnormalities in obese children and adolescent and reversibility of these abnormalities after significant weight reduction

Background: Obesity is becoming an epidemic threat for the individual and society. The increasing prevalence of overweight children and adolescents is likely to have a great impact on the future cardiovascular health of these subjects. Obesity is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular morbidityand mortality. Cardiac abnormalities of obese children and adolescents include the chocardiographically revealed early and preclinical LV or septal hypertrophy, and left or right ventriculardysfunction. Most of these abnormalities, which are usually more pronounced in patients with morbidobesity, can be partially reversed after weight reduction. Aim of the study: Evaluate early echocardiography changes in obese children and whether these cardiac abnormalities reverse with significant weight reduction in children and adolescents or not. Methods: We started this study by 50 obese children and adolescents and 30 non obese controls matched for age and sex. BMI was calculated. Complete echocardiographic study was performed on each patient and control subject. Hematological and biochemical variables were determined in the obese subjects from fasting blood samples and included glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. All our patients’ strict dietetic regime with exercises for 6 months. After 6 months full examination, including all measurements and echocardiography and laboratory investigations were done again.