Assessing Down syndrome BMI and body composition

Abstract

IntroductionDown syndrome (DS) is the most frequent aneuploidy in the humans. Children with DS have a predisposition to obesity, and it is known that the phenotype of these individuals may lead to a bias in the use of the World Health Organization body mass index (WHO BMI). ObjectivesThis study proposes the assessment of body composition in individuals with DS using the dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) technique, the current gold standard for comparison of its values with those found in general population. MethodData was collected randomly from patients, such as their BMI and body composition with the DXA machine Lunar Prodigy Advance®, with their values compared to literature references and statistically analyzed with their WHO BMI z-score. Results45 individuals were analyzed, with a prevalence of 58% of girls, mean age of 11 years old and 35.5% were obese by WHO BMI z-score; 57.1% of the subgroup of eutrophic individuals with DS by WHO BMI had altered body composition values. ConclusionThe WHO BMI z-score in patients with DS has a correspondence with the body composition only in individuals classified as overweight or obese by BMI z-score. It was concluded that BMI is not an appropriate tool to infer the body composition in children with DS.