Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Measurement in Obese Children

Park, Kyung Ok; Choi, Suk Ju; Yeom, Hee Hyun; Chung, Sochung; Yu, Jeong Jin; Park, Youngshin; Lee, Dong Hwan

Abstract

PURPOSE
The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether the increase of carotid intima- media thickeness (cIMT) as one of premature pathologic changes of atherosclerosis, was present in obese children compared to normal weight children. METHODS: The obese group consisted of 21 obese/overweight (body mass index (BMI) above 85 percentile of age, sex standards) children and the control group of 11 normal weight children. None of the children had any chronic illnesses or previous medication history. We investigated the age, sex, height, weight, and systolic/diastolic blood pressure. We measured cIMT by ultrasonogram. In 19 of the obese group, we tested the serum glucose level, liver transaminase level, and cholesterol level etc. RESULTS: The increase of cIMT in obese group did not achieved statistical significance (obese group vs. control group; 0.42 vs. 0.40 mm, P=0.0592). In addition, cIMT showed no significant correlation with any physical/laboratory variables including BMI (P=0.0585). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure the cIMT in Korean children. Though the results approached statistical significance, we could not prove an increase of cIMT in obese children or an association between cIMT and BMI, due to the study's small sample size. In the future, larger and more extensive trials are needed.