title: Evaluation of the left ventricle longitudinal deformity using myocardial-tracking signals in severely obese adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The global prevalence of obesity in school-age children and adolescents has increased in recent decades. Obesity modifies some aspects of the cardiovascular system in order to preserve the body homoeostasis. Echocardiography to study ventricular function plays an important role in the evaluation of pathological re-modelling associated with left ventricular dysfunction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the left ventricle function and structure with conventional echocardiography and to analyse the longitudinal deformity of the left ventricle using myocardial-tracking signals in a group of severely obese adolescents. Methods and results We carried out a descriptive cross-sectional study. We describe the evaluation of the left ventricle using conventional bi-dimensional echocardiography and the myocardial-tracking signals in severely obese adolescents. There were 34 severely obese adolescents included in our study; 52% had a left ventricular ejection fraction<55%, the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was increased in 70.5% of patients, and 32.3% had an increase in left ventricular mass. On average, 78.9% had abnormal values of left ventricle longitudinal deformations. The number of segments affected per patient was, on average, 5.8, with the anterior apical segment being the most commonly affected. There was a decrease in global longitudinal deformity in 79.4% of the cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More than half of this group of asymptomatic severely obese adolescents showed abnormalities in left ventricular structure and function evaluated using traditional echocardiographic methods, but 100% of the cases showed abnormalities in longitudinal deformation in at least one of the 17 left ventricle segments evaluated using myocardial-tracking signals.
authors.affiliation: 1Cardiology DepartmentChildren Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez,México,D.F.,México.
authors.forename: Norma
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Balderrábano
authors.affiliation: 2Allergy and Clinical Immunology,Children Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez,México,D.F.,México.
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Del Rio
authors.affiliation: 2Allergy and Clinical Immunology,Children Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez,México,D.F.,México.
authors.forename: Elsy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Navarrete
authors.affiliation: 2Allergy and Clinical Immunology,Children Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez,México,D.F.,México.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berber
authors.affiliation: 2Allergy and Clinical Immunology,Children Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez,México,D.F.,México.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Méndez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000150:complications*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: Obesity; echocardiography; left ventricular function