Assessment of Cardiovascular Autonomic Function in Asymptomatic Obese Young Adults – Prevention is Better than Cure.

ABSTRACT

Back ground Obesity is emerging global epidemic in young adults who form the productive group of the society. This has been called as new world syndrome and is a massive reflection of social, economic and cultural problems currently faced by the developing and developed countries. As cardiac autonomic dysfunction often coexists with obesity, early detection of autonomic impairment by simple investigations of autonomic function, can be potentially important to prevent future complications. Objective: To identify cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in asymptomatic obese young adults. Study design: This study was conducted in the department of Physiology at Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, A.P, 30 apparently healthy obese subjects of both sex with BMI > 25 kg/sqm were taken as study group. Age and sex matched 30 normal weight subjects (BMI 18.5-22.9 kg/ sqm) taken as control group. Methods: Ewing’s battery of 5 noninvasive cardiovascular reflex tests were done for assessing autonomic function. These autonomic function parameters were correlated with BMI, Unpaired Student‘t’ test and Pearson correlation coefficient test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Mean values of all cardiovascular reflex tests were significantly lower in the study group. Conclusion: The results indicate that cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction is present in otherwise healthy obese young adults.