Arterial stiffness indices, pulse wave velocity and central systolic blood pressure, are able to discriminate between obese and non-obese children.

• This is the first study to show that PWV and SBPc can discriminate obese from non-obese children. These results show that, in addition to an increased BMI, a simple, rapid, and noninvasive measurement of arterial stiffness adds prognostic information on cardiovascular risk.