Inflammatory Markers in Children’s Obesity - EAP 2021 Virtual Congress and MasterCourse

Oana Marginean ¹ Maria Oana Sasaran ² Lorena Elena Melit ¹ Dana Valentina Ghiga ³

¹Pediatrics, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology from Târgu Mureș, Romania
²Pediatric Cardiology, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology from Târgu Mureș, Romania
³Department of Informatics, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology from Târgu Mureș, Romania

Background: Our study assess the early stages of inflammation associated to overweight/obesity in children.

Material and method: We performed a prospective study with 124 children, 5-18 years age, admitted to a Pediatric Tertiary Hospital in Romania. According to the BMI into two groups: group 1: 57 overweight and obese children (BMI percentile ³ 85), and group 2: 67 children with a normal BMI, in order to evaluate the correlation between BMI and laboratory parameters (CBC, ESR, AST, ALT, total protein, albumin, glycemia), inflammatory biomarkers, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio = NLR).

Results: We identified that the leukocyte, lymphocyte, erythrocyte, platelet, CRP and transaminase levels were higher in the overweight/obese group (p=0.05, p=0.0001, p=0.0001, p=0.0005, p<0.0001, p=0.03, and p<0.0001, respectively). No significant statistical differences between the two groups in terms of neutrophil, hemoglobin, albumin, total protein, glycemia and NLR (p>0.05).

Conclusions: Our study established that leukocyte, lymphocyte, erythrocyte, and platelet levels are higher in overweight/obese children, emphasizing the inflammatory status related to this condition.