Modulation of Cardiac Autonomic Control in Children and Adolescents with Obesity

Abstract

Abstract

It is established that one of the most important characteristics of obesity is cardiovascular alterations. Obese individual suffers from an increased mortality risk supposedly due to cardiovascular disorders related to either continuously lowered parasympathetic and/or sympathetic activation. Presently, heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the ways to assess cardiac autonomic function. It is recognized as non-invasive and powerful means for evaluating physiological factors influencing the normal rhythm of the heart. Higher HRV is a signal of good adaptation and characterizes a healthy person with efficient autonomic mechanisms, while lower HRV is frequently an indicator of abnormal and insufficient adaptation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), provoking poor patient’s physiological function. In this paper, we have discussed mechanisms of HRV, the sympathetic nervous system activation in human obesity and various factors modulating blood pressure in obese children and adolescents.

 Key words: heart rate variability, obesity, children, adolescents