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OBJECTIVE To examine the factors which affect the cardiovascular function of overweight/obese pre-pubertal children and adolescents. METHOD A total of 1,397 healthy children aged 9-14 years participated in the study. The subjects were divided according to their gender (boys: n=728, girls: n=699), age (9-10 years: n=499, 11-12 years: n=408, 13-14 years: n=490), arterial blood pressure (BP) (normotensive: n=1,169, pre-hypertensive: n=101, level I hypertension: n=96, level II hypertension: n=31) and weight (normal-weight: n=984, overweigh: n=280, obese: n=133). Measurements were made of the anthropometric characteristics (height, body mass), arterial BP (systolic, diastolic) and resting heart rate (Hr) in order to determine the pulse pressure, mean arterial BP, double product, stroke volume, cardiac output, peripheral resistance and cardiac index. RESULTS In this sample, 70.4% were of normal weight and the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 20.1% and 9.5%, respectively. The prevalence of elevated BP was 11.5% in the overweight/obese boys and 9.1% in the overweight/obese girls. The odds ratio (OR) and the relative risk (RR) of both obesity and hypertension were OR=7.36 (95% CI: 4.82-11.24) and RR=4.91 (95% CI: 3.49-6.91) for boys and OR=4.29 (95% CI: 2.79-6.61) and RR=3.27 (95% CI: 2.31-4.63) for girls. The normotensive normal-weight children, irrespective of gender, presented more favourable values of heart rate, double product and cardiac index than the hypertensive overweight/obese children (p<0.001). Stepwise multiple regression using the cardiac index as the dependent variable (y=5.312-0.049×W+0.053×Hr-0.076×DP+0.036×SP-0.175×age), showed that 92.5% of the total variance was explained by body mass (W: 53%), Hr (Hr: 14.3%), diastolic BP (DP: 14.1%), systolic BP (SP: 8.5%) and age (age: 2.6%). In addition, negative correlation was demonstrated between the body mass index (BMI) and the cardiac index (r=-0.646, p<0.001) and positive correlation between BMI and the other hemodynamic parameters (r=0.211 to 0.517, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Increased body mass and age affect the cardiac function of overweight/obese prepubertal children and adolescents, irrespective of gender, and are associated with an increased risk of development of hypertension, in comparison with normal weight peers. In clinical practice, it is necessary to implement prognostic indicators in childhood and adolescence aimed at the early detection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the changes in body composition and lipid profile after a three year systematic program combining aerobic and resistance exercise in healthy elderly women. METHOD Twenty elderly women were divided into two groups: the exercise group (n=10, age 62.0±5.7 years) and the control group (n=10, age 66.2±5.1 years). The exercise program included 3 sessions a week, each of which lasted 50 minutes and combined strength and aerobic exercise. At the beginning and at the end of each 9-month period anthropometric measurements and biochemical analyses were applied. There was a 3 month suspension of the program each year. RESULTS After 3 years of the intervention program, significant differences were recorded between the exercise group and the control group in body mass (p<0.01), body mass index (BMI) (p<0.05), body fat (p<0.01) and blood levels of fasting glucose (p<0.001), total cholesterol (p<0.05) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (p<0.01). Each year, after 9 months of intervention, the exercise group presented significantly lower values in obesity indices (p<0.05), fasting blood glucose (p<0.001) and total cholesterol (p<0.001) and higher values in HDL-C (p<0.05) than the control group. These positive adaptations, however, were reversed during detraining (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Nine months of annual training for a 3-year period induced positive adaptations in body composition and lipid profile in elderly women. Three months of detraining, reversed the favorable adaptations, highlighting the importance of regular exercise in maintaining the positive results beneficial to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]