[Percentile reference value of waist circumference for Chinese children aged 3-7 years]

Association between clustering of cardiovascular risk factors and left ventricular geometric remodeling in Chinese children

Background

Several cardiovascular (CV) risk factors are reported to be associated with abnormal cardiac structure in children and adults. However, no study has assessed the association between clustering of multiple CV risk factors and left ventricular geometric (LVG) remodeling. We examined the association between clustering of CV risk factors and LVG remodeling among Chinese children.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 1,406 children aged 6-11 years. Clustering of CV risk factors was quantified as the sum of the number of five CV risk factors (abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose, high triglycerides and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). Based on left ventricular mass index and relative wall thickness (RWT), left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), high RWT and LVG remodeling [concentric remodeling (CR), eccentric hypertrophy (EH) and concentric hypertrophy (CH)] were defined.

Results

Compared to participants without CV risk factor, those with 1, 2 and ≥3 risk factors were at increased risk of LVH [ORs (95% CIs): 3.49 (2.19-5.56), 5.53 (3.20-9.55), and 19.19 (9.67-38.08), respectively]; corresponding values for high RWT were 2.47 (1.63-3.74), 3.76 (2.25-6.27), and 5.47 (2.65-11.28). Similar associations between clustering of CV risk factors and LVG remodeling were found [CR: 1.71 (1.06-2.76), 2.83 (1.54-5.18), and 3.82 (1.37-10.62); EH: 2.42 (1.42-4.11), 4.23 (2.24-7.96), and 16.86 (7.70-36.92); CH: 14.92 (4.41-50.47), 23.15 (6.32-84.83), and 71.19 (17.09-296.56)].

Conclusion

CV risk factors in isolation and combination were associated with an increased risk of LVH, high RWT and LVG remodeling among children, emphasizing the need to consider multiple risk factors when assessing the risk of cardiac outcomes.

Accuracy and capability of tri-ponderal mass index in assessing cardio-metabolic risk factors in Chinese children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years, compared with body mass index

BACKGROUND

Tri-ponderal mass index (TMI) has been reported to be a more accurate estimate of body fat than body mass index (BMI). This study aims to compare the effectiveness of TMI and BMI in identifying hypertension, dyslipidemia, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), abdominal obesity, and clustered cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMRFs) in 3- to 17-year-old children.

METHODS

A total of 1587 children aged 3 to 17 years were included. Logistic regression was used to evaluate correlations between BMI and TMI. Area under the curves (AUCs) were used to compare discriminative capability among indicators. BMI was converted to BMI- z scores, and accuracy was compared by false-positive rate, false-negative rate, and total misclassification rate.

RESULTS

Among children aged 3 to 17 years, the mean TMI was 13.57 ± 2.50 kg/m 3 for boys and 13.3 ± 2.33 kg/m 3 for girls. Odds ratios (ORs) of TMI for hypertension, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs ranged from 1.13 to 3.15, higher than BMI, whose ORs ranged from 1.08 to 2.98. AUCs showed similar ability of TMI (AUC: 0.83) and BMI (AUC: 0.85) in identifying clustered CMRFs. For abdominal obesity and hypertension, the AUC of TMI was 0.92 and 0.64, respectively, which was significantly better than that of BMI, 0.85 and 0.61. AUCs of TMI for dyslipidemia and IFG were 0.58 and 0.49. When 85th and 95th of TMI were set as thresholds, total misclassification rates of TMI for clustered CMRFs ranged from 6.5% to 16.4%, which was not significantly different from that of BMI- z scores standardized according to World Health Organization criteria.

CONCLUSIONS

TMI was found to have equal or even better effectiveness in comparison with BMI in identifying hypertension, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs TMI was more stable than BMI in 3- to 17-year-old children, while it failed to identify dyslipidemia and IFG. It is worth considering the use of TMI for screening CMRFs in children and adolescents.

Utility of Three Adiposity Indices for Identifying Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Geometric Remodeling in Chinese Children

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) performed similarly well when compared to body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) for identifying cardiovascular risk factors. However, to our knowledge, the performance of these three adiposity indices for identifying left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and left ventricular geometric (LVG) remodeling in youth has not been assessed. We aimed to determine the utility of BMI, WC and WHtR for identifying LVH and LVG in Chinese children.

METHODS

This study included 1,492 Chinese children aged 6-11 years. Adiposity indices assessed were BMI, WC and WHtR. LVH and high relative wall thickness (RWT) were defined using sex- and age-specific 90th percentile values of left ventricular mass index and RWT, respectively, based on the current population. LVG remodeling included concentric remodeling (CR), eccentric hypertrophy (EH) and concentric hypertrophy (CH), which was defined based on the combination of LVH and high RWT.

RESULTS

The magnitude of association of central obesity defined by WHtR with LVH [odds ratio (OR) =10.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) =6.66-15.29] was similar with general obesity defined by BMI (OR=10.49, 95% CI=6.97-15.80), and both were higher than central obesity defined by WC (OR=6.87, 95% CI=4.57-10.33). Compared with BMI, WHtR had better or similar predictive utility for identifying LVH, EH, and CH [the area under the curve (AUC): 0.84 vs. 0.79; 0.84 vs. 0.77; 0.87 vs. 0.88, respectively]; WC had worse or similar discriminatory utility with AUCs of 0.73, 0.70, 0.83, respectively.

CONCLUSION

WHtR performed similarly or better than BMI or WC for identifying LVH and LVG remodeling among Chinese children. WHtR provides a simple and convenient measure of central obesity that might improve the discrimination of children with cardiac structural damage.