Relation between bronchial asthma, body composition and serum adiponectin level in obese asthmatic children

Abstract

Studies have shown that the prevalence of bronchial asthma and obesity is increasing concomitantly worldwide among children and young adults. Both, asthma and obesity have serious health consequences and significant financial costs. The burden of obesity on pulmonary function in children is highlighted by the increased frequency of bronchial hyper-responsiveness, increased number of prescribed medications and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use, and reduced peak expiratory flow rate in overweight / obese asthmatic children compared to non-overweight asthmatic children. Excess body weight is also associated with an increase in the number of school days missed by asthmatic children and significantly reduced quality of life. The ongoing epidemic of obesity in children has highlighted the importance of body composition for short term and long term health. Hence, components of body composition influence health outcomes, and their measurement is increasingly considered valuable in clinical practice. The aim of our study is to evaluate the level of adiponectin as a hormone of energy metabolism in obese and non-obese asthmatic children, to investigate the association between serum adiponectin, CRP, IL- 6 level and body composition parameters in asthmatic children, its effect on asthma severity and the clinical outcome and to emphasize on the bad effect of obesity on asthma and hence show the importance of weight loss for improvement of patients. The present study was conducted on 90 children from those attending the allergy clinic in Abo El Rich Pediatric Hospital, Faculty of medicine, Cairo University, during the period between 2013 and 2014. Their ages ranged from 7-12 years. Cases were divided into 2 groups; Group1: comprised 30 non-obese asthmatic children Group 2: comprised 30 obese asthmatic children Another 30 apparently healthy children of matched age and sex as the control group, (Group 3). All cases were subjected to complete history taking and clinical examination. They comprised both males and females with an age range from 7-12 years. Diagnosed cases of bronchial asthma were either new or on treatment with corticosteroids for less than 3 months. As for the non-obese asthmatic group BMI was <85 t