This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Bariatric surgery improved cardiac abnormalities in obese adolescents
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In extremely obese adolescents with previously undiagnosed cardiovascular abnormalities, researchers from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus found that bariatric surgery was beneficial. According to a press release, more than half of the adolescent patients’ cardiovascular abnormalities were similar to those of a middle-aged patient with cardiovascular disease.
Researcher Marc Michalsky, MD, of the department of surgery in the division of pediatric surgery, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of 10 female adolescent bariatric surgery patients with a mean age of 17.4 years and BMI of 50.33 kg/m2.
“Many of the abnormalities that we documented during the initial baseline study showed significant improvement after the weight loss had been obtained,” Michalsky said in the release. “This is a small, preliminary study that shows the significance of cardiovascular abnormalities in morbidly obese teens, and that additional, more robust investigations are needed to understand how weight-loss surgery can help this patient population.”
Compared with control patients, the obese patients demonstrated increased left ventricular mass (101 g vs. 122 g; P<.05). Similarly, obese patients had higher left ventricular end-diastolic volume compared with control patients (156 mL vs. 109 mL; P=.001), with an average ejection fraction of 61.5% (P=.003), researchers wrote.
Furthermore, Michalsky and colleagues found that 60% of the obese patients displayed adenosine-induced subendocardial ischemia at baseline. This completely normalized in three of five patients, with a partial improvement noted in two of five patients. After bariatric surgery, mean left ventricular mass was also reduced.
The findings require additional large-scale research to determine further obesity-related CVD among severely obese adolescent patients.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts