Carotid Intima-medial Thickness and Glucose Homeostasis in Indian Obese Children and Adolescents.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate for subclinical atherosclerosis and its risk factors in Indian obese children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional, case-control study was conducted to recruit 80 children aged 6-17 years with constitutional obesity as cases and 23 age- and gender-matched controls with normal body mass index (BMI). Anthropometric and clinical evaluation was followed by biochemical analysis and body fat estimation by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in cases. Similar evaluation was performed for controls except laboratory parameters. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) was measured with B-mode ultrasonography in both cases and controls to evaluate subclinical atherosclerosis.

RESULTS

The mean age of cases was 12.8 ± 3 years, with mean BMI of 29.2 ± 4.8 kg/m. The mean CIMT was significantly higher in cases than controls (0.54 ± 0.13 vs. 0.42 ± 0.08; < 0.001 across all ages). CIMT was significantly higher in participants who were hypertensive than nonhypertensive (0.6 ± 0.11 vs. 0.53 ± 0.11 mm; = 0.04). CIMT showed a positive correlation with BMI ( = 0.23, = 0.02), percentage body fat and fat mass index ( = 0.28 and 0.3 respectively; < 0.001), but not with waist: hip ratio. CIMT showed significant positive correlation with blood glucose at 60 min ( = 0.22; = 0.04), serum insulin at 60 min ( = 0.28; = 0.01) while negative correlation with whole body insulin sensitivity ( = -0.27; = 0.01).

CONCLUSION

CIMT correlated significantly to blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and body fat in Indian obese children.