Alteraciones metabólicas en pacientes obesos y su asociación con la acantosis nigricans

introduction: nowadays, obesity is considered a worldwide increasing epidemic. this phenomenon involves children and adults and it is associated with the early appearance of non-communicable chronic diseases that in the past were exclusive of adults, but that may be present in early ages of life. objective: to identify the clinical and metabolic alterations in obese patients and its association with acanthosis nigricans. methods: a prospective and longitudinal study was conducted in 60 patients diagnosed with exogenous obesity with or without acanthosis nigricans from january, 2009 to january, 2010 in the endocrinology services of the "william soler" teaching children hospital. authors also carried out anamnesis and physical examination, glucose tolerance test, with fasting glycemia and insulinemia determination and at two hours, cholesterol determination, triglycerides and liver ultrasound. results: the 55 % of study patients had acanthosis nigricans. in this group of patients there was predominance of high blood pressure (18.2 %), as well as the hyperinsulinism (21.2 %). altered glucose tolerance test (6 %), lipid alterations (27.2 %) and hepatic steatosis predominated in the obese patients presenting with acanthosis nigricans. conclusions: obesity in pediatric age may be a high risk to suffer metabolic complications, mainly in the obese patient with acanthosis nigricans.