Adiposity, cardiac size and precursors of coronary atherosclerosis in 5 to 15-year-old children: a retrospective study of 210 violent deaths.

The results point to an important role of excess body weight and adiposity in the development of early myocardial and coronary changes in childhood: coronary fatty streaks were not found at all in the leanest individuals in this relatively large group and the cardiac size adjusted for body size indicated hypertrophy with increasing adiposity. Prospective autopsy studies are needed in order to determine whether adiposity and the regional distribution of fat, especially intra-abdominal fat accumulation, are associated with the earliest signs of myocardial hypertrophy and the initial phase of lesion development in the arterial intima of children.