The study, to be presented at 3 pm Central time Monday, March 31, at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions in Chicago, adds to previous knowledge gained through studies conducted at Cincinnati Children's that clearly reveals the cardiovascular health risks of obesity at a young age.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers at Cincinnati Children's, involved a new and better way to identify problems in the hearts of obese children during the heart's relaxation phase: tissue Doppler imaging, or TDI. TDI measures the walls of the heart, as opposed to conventional Doppler echocardiography, which measures blood as it passes through the heart.
"The traditional ways of visualizing the heart can fool you into thinking that the relaxation of the heart is normal," says Tom Kimball, MD, a cardiologist at Cincinnati Children's and the study's senior author.
"Relaxation problems of the heart are new and uncharted territory in pediatric research. But we know that if problems get bad enough, they can cause breathing difficulties and exercise intolerance."
Dr. Kimball and his colleagues assessed diastolic function -- the function of the left ventricle as it relaxes – of 146 obese children who had echocardiograms. These were compared to echocardiograms of children of normal weight. The hearts of obese children were "significantly different," according to Dr. Kimball.
"The ventricle may be getting stiffer," he says. "The chamber becomes harder to fill and blood could potentially back up if the relaxation abnormalities become severe. This is the beginning stage of potential problems that can best be avoided by losing weight."
Dr. Kimball is one of the nation's foremost authorities on pediatric echocardiography and director of the echocardiography laboratory at Cincinnati Children's.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a 373-bed institution dedicated to the pursuit of perfect health care. It is the only pediatric organization in the United States to receive the prestigious Pursuing Perfection grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation ranks third nationally among all pediatric centers in research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The Cincinnati Children's vision is to be the leader in improving child health, through patient care, research and education. Additional information about Cincinnati Children's can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.