ESPE Abstracts

Objectives: Pediatric obesity (PO) leads in adulthood to chronic high-risk pathologies, if not adequately identified and addressed. The anthropometric methods for evaluating PO have well-described limits. One of the most recently proposed indexes to better locate and evaluate PO is the neck circumference (NC). We have verified the relationship between NC, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and some laboratory parameters, with the aim of defining the validity of NC as an istrument for screening PO and its hepato-metabolic complications (HMC).

Methods: Our study was performed involving 100 (62 boys, 38 girls, age 5-16 years) obese children (BMI z-score 2.44 ± 0.35) recruited at our pediatric endocrinology service of "Santa Maria della Speranza" Hospital, Battipaglia (Italy). Everyone performed: weight/height measurement, WC, NC, arterial pressure [systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP)]; laboratory determination of blood glucose, insulin, ALT, AST, GGT, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, ESR, RCP; abdominal ultrasound examination to establish the presence/absence of bright liver (hepatic steatosis). BMI, HOMA index, CC / CV ratio have been obtained. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated between NC, WC, BMI and laboratory values.

Results: Alla obese children had a NC > 95th percentiles for sex and age (cut off: 30.5 - 46.5 cm), mean value 35.97 ± 4.2 cm. NC correlated significantly with BMI (R = 0.66832, P = 0.0001), WC (R = 0.69944 P = 0.00005) and blood uric acid (UA) values (R = 0.53685, P = 0.04777). UA was > 6.5 mg/dL in 30% of our studied sample. No correlation (P > 0.05) between NC and inflammatory indexes, transaminases, HOMA index, lipid profile, SBP/DBP, hepatic steatosis was found.

Conclusions: This study of our series shows that NC could be used as an alternative to BMI and WC, to identify PO and related HMC risk factors.