Advances in the knowledge of childhood obesity: From the consultation to the laboratory

Abstract

We will analyze the diagnostic and therapeutical singularities of childhood obesity compared to the same disease in adults. We will also show how the early age at the onset of obesity determines changes in the hystological structure of adipose tissue, that are relevant to body composition, as to metabolic homeostasis in later stages of life.  We will explain how, as a  consecuence of the higher plasticity of infantile adipose tissue, weight reduction in children remodels body fat distribution in a different way that observed in adults.  We will also go through the state of the art in the knowledge of the etiological bases of the different forms of obesity observed during childhood, stressing the need to know the usefulness of currently available diagnostic tools. Finally, the singularities in the treatment of the pediatric obese patient will be pointed, thus remarking that both, the methods and the outcome are also different to those observed in adult patients.