Cardiovascular Implications in Idiopathic and Syndromic Obesity in Childhood: An Update.

Maurizio Delvecchio,Federica Valente,Carmela Pastore,Paola Giordano

doi:10.3389/fendo.2020.00330

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a modern worldwide epidemic with significant burden for health. It is a chronic metabolic disorder associated with multiple cardiovascular risk factors such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, stroke, and insulin resistance. Many obese adolescents remain obese into adulthood, with increased morbidity and mortality. As childhood obesity is a risk factor for adult obesity, the childhood obesity-related disorders account for an increased risk of cardiovascular consequences in adults, in addition to the effects already exerted by the fat mass in adulthood. Several papers have already described the cardiovascular implications of idiopathic obesity, while few data are available about syndromic obesity, due to the small sample size, not homogeneous phenotypes, and younger age at death. The aim of this mini-review is to give a comprehensive overview on knowledge about cardiovascular implications of idiopathic and syndromic obesity to allow the reader a quick comparison between them. The similarities and differences will be highlighted.

Highlights

Childhood obesity is a worldwide epidemic and a significant burden for health
Two authors (CP and MD) independently performed a PubMed search to identify the pertinent papers updated to 15th February 2020 using the following MeSH terms: “pediatric obesity” AND “cardiovascular disease” OR “complications.” For syndromic obesity, “pediatric obesity” was replaced by the name of each syndrome
We reviewed the papers about cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in syndromic obesity

Summary

Introduction

Childhood obesity is a worldwide epidemic and a significant burden for health. In the WHO countries, one third of children is overweight or obese, and in the majority of European countries, above 30 and 10% of 5–19-year-old subjects are overweight or obese [1]. About 60% of overweight prepubertal children become overweight in early adulthood, with the risk of developing noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, type 2 diabetes (T2D), metabolic syndrome (MetS), and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) [2] They account for ∼77% of the burden of disease and almost 86% of premature mortality [1], with large economic and social impacts exacerbated by the early age at onset. Many countries adopted strategies to fight obesity with short-term results, but long-term strategies are necessary because prevention is the only way to avoid its consequences [1, 4]. In this view, prevention is important for those workers who may receive less protection [5]

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