Backgrounds and aims Left ventricular hypertrophy is a strong independent predictor of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Subclinical cardiovascular disease begins to evolve in childhood. Epidemiological studies show that impaired growth is associated with increased left ventricular mass. The aim of this study is to asses how is the pattern more frequent in obese children.

Methods Anthropometric measurements were taken in 147 normotensive children, 95 with obesity (age 11.0 ± 2.8 years) and 52 with normal weight (age 11.1 ± 2.7 years). Echocardiography determinations were performed by two-dimensional mode. The function and left ventricular (LV) mass was assessed according to the formula of Devereux and indexed for height^2.7 to obtain left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Relative wall Thicknes (RWT) was also normalised for age. A RWT ≤ 0.42, which represents the 95th percentile, and the 95th percentile of LVMi for age and gender for normal children were used as cut-off points in the evaluation of LV geometry. LV geometry was classified as normal, eccentric hypertrophy, concentric hypertrophy or concentric remodelation.

Results The presence of any type of abnormal geometry was more frequent in obese children (Table 1).

Conclusion The most prevalent abnormal geometry type was eccentric hypertrophy that was present in 9,6% of controls but in 41,3% of obese children (p < 0.05).