Obese kids have arteries of 45-year-old

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Obese children may have the veins and arteries of 45-year-old middle-age adults, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine said that the "vascular age" of children increases with obesity.

Dr. Geetha Raghuveer said percentile tables are available that plot carotid -- an artery that supplies the head and neck with blood -- intima media thickness for 45-year-olds in the population, categorized by race and gender.

There are no tables for children. Raghuveer and colleagues arbitrarily designated advanced childhood vascular age as having a thickness above the first quartile -- top one-quarter -- for a child matched to a 45-year-old in the table by sex and race.

"Vascular age is advanced in children with risk factors such as obesity and dyslipidemia," Raghuveer said in a statement.

Carotid artery ultrasound and estimation of vascular age may help stratify children with risk factors who may be at greater risk and who may need intensive management including pharmacological management of risk factors, Raghuveer said.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.