The value of non-invasive vascular elastography (NIVE) in detecting early vascular changes in overweight and obese children

Objectives Evaluate non-invasive vascular elastography (NIVE) in detecting vascular changes associated with obese children. Methods Case-control study to evaluate NIVE in 120 children, 60 with elevated body mass index (BMI) (≥ 85th percentile for age and sex). Participants were randomly selected from a longitudinal cohort, evaluating consequences of obesity in healthy children with one obese parent. Radiofrequency ultrasound videos of the common carotid artery were obtained. The carotid wall was segmented and NIVE applied to measure cumulated axial strain (CAS), cumulated axial translation (CAT), cumulated lateral translation (CLT), maximal shear strain (Max |SSE|), and intima-media thickness (IMT). Multivariate analyses were used controlling for age, sex, Tanner stage, blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein. Statistical significance was set to 0.05–0.008. Participants were 10–13 years old (mean 11.4 and 12.0, for normal and elevated BMI groups, p