Obese kids' arteries look like middle-aged adults'

(China Daily) An obese child's arteries may be just as clogged as the arteries of someone who is middle-aged, researchers said on Tuesday.

This buildup of fatty plaque means the children may risk heart attack or stroke as early as age 30, according to Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine and Children's Mercy Hospital.

"This is an alarming finding," Raghuveer, who led the study presented at an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans, said in a telephone interview.

Her team used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the inner walls of neck arteries of 70 mostly obese children with an average age of 13, and found that the state of their arteries was more typical of a 45 year old.