Skilton M R, Celermajer D S
Cardiology Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2006 Jul;30(7):1041-9. doi: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803397.
Rates of overweight and obesity in both adults and children have risen sharply during the past 20 years. The reasons for this escalation in obesity are not fully determined, however, sedentary lifestyle and dietary changes in combination with genetic predisposition are probably involved. Clinical cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction and stroke, are usually only manifest in the fifth decade of life or beyond. However, the earliest physical signs of atherosclerosis, the underlying disease process that leads to these events, may be present from early childhood. There are now a variety of noninvasive tests used to assess both the structural and functional properties of the vasculature and in vivo changes suggestive of 'early atherosclerosis' have now been characterised. These have allowed not only an increased understanding of the atherosclerotic changes to the vasculature that accompany overweight and obesity in children, but have also allowed serial study of the effects of diet and exercise interventions on early atherosclerosis changes, in childhood obesity.
在过去20年里，成人和儿童的超重及肥胖率急剧上升。然而，肥胖率上升的原因尚未完全明确，不过可能与久坐不动的生活方式、饮食变化以及遗传易感性有关。临床心血管疾病，包括心肌梗死和中风，通常在人生的第五个十年及以后才会显现。然而，动脉粥样硬化（导致这些疾病的潜在病理过程）最早的体征可能在儿童早期就已出现。现在有多种非侵入性检测方法可用于评估血管系统的结构和功能特性，并且已经明确了提示“早期动脉粥样硬化”的体内变化特征。这些不仅增进了我们对儿童超重和肥胖所伴随的血管系统动脉粥样硬化变化的理解，还使得对饮食和运动干预对儿童肥胖早期动脉粥样硬化变化影响的系列研究成为可能。
