Cardiac autonomic dysfunction in obese normotensive children and adolescents.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that obese normotensive children and adolescents present impaired cardiac autonomic control compared to non-obese normotensive ones.

Methods: For this cross-sectional study, 66 children and adolescents were divided into the following groups: Obese (n=31, 12±3 years old) and Non-Obese (n=35, 13±3 years old). Obesity was defined as body mass index greater than the 95th percentile for age and gender.