Flow-mediated Arterial Dilatation, Hypertension, Endothelin-1 and sICAM-1 in Obese Adolescents

Obesity in adolescents is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In order to detect early development of cardiovascular disease, early detection of the endothelium of obese adolescents is needed. Endothelium dysfunction is an early stage of developing atherosclerosis, which can be a predictor of cardiovascular disease development in the future. Flow mediated dilatation (FMD) is a non-invasive method that can measure endothelium function and predict the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is not only able to measure artery diameter, but also provides function index of nitric oxide (NO) in the endothelium. FMD is negatively related to BMI. Meanwhile, Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, because when its levels increase, ET-1 can cause a condition of hyperinsulinemia. ET-1 was found to be high in patients with cardiovascular disorders, as well as in obese and diabetic subjects. Alternative methods for assessing endothelial function by measurement of biomarkers of activation and endothelial dysfunction such as soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1). Levels of sICAM-1 have been found to be related positively to age, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and inversely to estrogen. Furthermore, associations have been found between sICAM-1 and cardiovascular mortality in both healthy individuals and populations at high risk. The aim of the study was to evaluate FMD, concentrations of ET-1 and sICAM-1 in adolescents with a presence of obesity and hypertension and to compare these with controls (obesity and non hypertension), as well as to analyze the correlations between FMD, ET-1, sICAM-1 and blood pressure values.