ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Obesity
Longitudinal study on ultrasound assessment of peripheral arterial elasticity and liver stiffness for evaluating clinical intervention efficacy in children with obesity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jinhua people’s Hospital of Zhejiang, Jinhua, China
- 2Jinhua Central Hospital, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China
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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a multidisciplinary clinical intervention in children with obesity by longitudinally monitoring changes in vascular elasticity and liver stiffness via ultrasound-derived parameters. Methods: A single-center longitudinal study was conducted on 120 children with obesity (aged 7–14 years, BMI ≥95th percentile). The participants underwent a 12-month intervention involving personalized low-calorie diets, structured aerobic exercise, and family-based cognitive‒behavioral therapy. Vascular parameters (carotid intima–media thickness [IMT], flow-mediated dilation [FMD], elasticity coefficient [Ep], stiffness index [β], distensibility coefficient [CD], arterial compliance [AC]) and liver stiffness (shear wave velocity [SWV]) were assessed at baseline (T0), 6 months (T1), and 12 months (T2) via Siemens S2000 ultrasound with ARFI technology. Statistical analyses included repeated-measures ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multivariate linear regression. Results: Significant improvements were observed in FMD (7.1% to 9.5%, P<0.001), Ep (60.5 kPa to 42.3 kPa, P<0.001), β (6.25 to 4.55, P<0.001), CD (10.05 kPa to 14.9 kPa, P<0.001), AC (0.96 to 1.29 mm²/kPa, P<0.001), and SWV (1.36 m/s to 0.98 m/s, P<0.001). The carotid IMT did not significantly change (Δ=−0.01 mm, P=0.16). Multivariate regression identified ΔBMI as an independent predictor of ΔFMD (β=0.32, P=0.003) and ΔSWV (β=−0.41, P<0.001). Conclusion: Ultrasound-based multiparameter assessment effectively quantifies improvements in vascular and hepatic function following clinical intervention in children with obesity.
Keywords: Children with obesity, Vascular elasticity, Liver stiffness, ultrasound, Clinical intervention
Received: 02 Apr 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zheng, Jiang, Zou, Fang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ning Zheng, zhengning1020@163.com
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