A study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has detected children who are fat or who are at obesity risk indicate early signs of heart disease like obese adults with heart troubles.

Angela Sharkey, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, said, “Based on this study, these subtle markers can help us predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks.”

The study was released in the ‘Winter 2007’ issue of the Journal of Cardiometabolic Syndrome.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity in the US is a countrywide outbreak, 19% of children between 6 to 11 and 17% of those 12 to 19 are obese. Those who are obese during infancy also contain an augmented risk of obesity in maturity and are at larger risk for problems including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, as obesity raises total blood volume that leads to extra strain on the heart.

Sharkey and Steven M. Lorch, M.D., a former fellow at the School of Medicine now at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, examined information from 168 children aged 10 to 18 who had been referred to them for cardiac ultrasound with indicants such as heart murmur, chest pain, acid reflux or high blood cholesterol.

Based on CDC rules for body mass index for age (BMIA), 33 patients were detected to have a BMIA as fat, or the 95th percentile or over for their age; 20 had a BMIA that classed them as at risk for fatness, or between the 85th and 94th percentile; and 115 were measured normal, or below the 85th percentile.

To examine the hearts of the fat children and those at risk, Sharkey and Lorch used a new tissue Doppler imaging technique known as vector velocity imaging that tracks their heart’s muscular wall movement. Any alterations in the motion rate of heart muscle were averaged out within each and every group and equated to the usual motion rate.

Sharkey said, “In the patients who are obese, the rate of motion of heart muscle changed. As a child’s BMIA increases, we see alterations in both the relaxation and contraction phase of the heartbeat. Many of these changes that have been seen in adults were assumed to be from long-standing obesity, but it may be that these changes start much earlier in life than we thought.”

As vector velocity imaging gets more broadly accessible, Sharkey told, it could possibly help pediatric heart surgeons go after these children closely eventually to observe if changes in the heart progress.

“We may be able to determine whether we could intervene in the process, such as focusing the families on understanding the importance of regular exercise and dietary modifications for weight loss and prescribing statin drugs for high-blood cholesterol,” she told.

Sharkey stated that the study outcomes offer more ammunition to medical doctors to use in counseling pediatric patients and their parents regarding the obesity risks and the need to achieve a healthy weight.

“Even in teenagers, obesity leads to decreased myocardial performance and abnormal diastolic function,” she said.

Additional analysis is required to decide how rapidly the heart changes set in after a child goes obese and whether those alterations are reversible with the loss of weight.