Adipose tissue content, distribution and lipid profile as a risk factor in children with bronchial asthma

Background: Obesity induces some physiological changes which are conducive to either development of asthma or cause of poorly controlled asthma state. The aim of this work was to study the relationships between obesity and bronchial asthma in children and whether adipose tissue content and body fat percentage may affect the degree of asthma severity and level of asthma control, also to assess the role of lipid profile in asthmatic children. Methods: This study carried out on 90 children with varying degree of severity and control with age range 2-16 years. All the studied cases were subjected to detailed History (frequency of symptoms, number of exacerbations, medications use, degree of asthma severity and level of asthma control), anthropometric data (Height, Weight, BMI, Skin fold thickness, Body fat percentage) and Investigations. Results: Asthma control had highly significant relations with body height, BMI and body fat percent with P value < 0.001. Body fat percentage of the studied group is significantly related to height, weight, BMI, abdominal skin fold thickness, sub scapular skin fold thickness, triceps skin fold thickness, the sum of three skin folds and with upper arm circumference. body fat percent is significantly affected by serum cholesterol level and serum LDL level with P value