ESPE Abstracts

Background: Atherosclerosis begins in childhood and progresses silently. Triglycerides/HDL ratio(TG/HDL) is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

Objective and hypotheses: To investigate TG/HDL as possible predictive factor for metabolic disorders in children.

Method: Descriptive correlation, with 110 children (6–12 years old) in Sparta, Greece. Anthropometric and biochemical analyzes were performed.

Results: 17.27% of children had predisposition for metabolic syndrome (MetSyn). ROC analysis showed that the TG/HDL has a high sensitivity (73.7%) and specificity (68.1%) for diagnosing MetSyn with 1 as a cutoff point. For the total population, the relative probability that a child suffers from MetSyn with a TG/HDL≥1 is almost six times greater than when a child has TG/HDL<1 (OR=5.986; 95% CI=1.968–18.205). TG/HDL is positively correlated with cholesterol (P=0.006), LDL (P=0.001), ALT/SGPT (P=0.033), γGT (P<0.001) and the cholesterol/LDL(CAD) ratio (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that children with TG/HDL≥1 had a 1.4 times greater odds for increased levels of cholesterol (OR=2.411; 95% CI=0.713–8.158), 2.6 times greater odds for increased LDL (OR=3.614; 95% CI=1.561–8.365), and 58.5% greater odds for increased ALT/SGPT (OR=1.585; 95% CI=0.215–11.698). In children without predisposition for MetSyn it comes out that as the TG/HDL increases so does the body weight (P=0.035), uric acid levels (P=0.002), and CAD (P<0.001). In this category, children with TG/HDL≥1 had 3.5 times greater odds for increased value of uric acid (OR=4.519; 95% CI=0.393–51.988). In children with predisposition for MetSyn it comes out that the TG/HDL is positively correlated with CAD (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Atherosclerosis is associated with TG/HDL due to the high concentration of both triglycerides and very low-density lipoprotein in plasma which leads to the production of small, dense LDL particles during the lipolysis. Previous studies report that the TG/HDL>4 in adults is a powerful predictive factor for the coronary disease. Interestingly, the current study showed that children may be affected for metabolic disorders when TG/HDL>1.