Increased Arterial Stiffness in Children with a Parental History of Hypertension

Abstract

The vascular dynamics of children with a parental history of hypertension has not been defined. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether or not these children have different arterial stiffness compared to the offspring of normotensive parents. One hundred healthy, nonobese subjects (ages 10-21 years) were divided into two groups of 50. Group A included the offspring of hypertensive patients and group B the offspring of normotensive parents. The variables studied were body surface area, blood pressure, and systolic and diastolic diameters of the aortic and carotid arteries as well as maximum velocity flow of these vessels. Carotid and aortic stiffness were calculated. Children and adolescents with a parental history of hypertension had higher carotid stiffness and smaller carotid diameters. These differences continued to be significant when correcting for body surface area. A higher blood pressure and a greater body surface area were also found.

Aortic stiffness in children of parents with hypertension

“…Thus, parental hypertension is a predictor of aortic stiffness in childhood, despite the absence in children of differences in blood pressure (Table 1). Similar findings have been reported; 7,8 they found that children and adolescents with a parental history of hypertension had higher carotid stiffness and smaller carotid diameters.…”

“…This is supported by data from adult studies in which aortic stiffness has been found to be strong and independent predictor of the later development of hypertension. 6,7 One possible limitation of the study is that diet and patient morphometry measured by abdominal circumference were not explored. This may be confound the evolution of aortic stiffness in both hypertensive and normotensive adults and children.…”

Haemodynamic, metabolic and neuro-humoral abnormalities in young normotensive women at high familial risk for hypertension

“…To our knowledge there are six studies dealing with large artery properties in young subjects at familial risk of hypertension, which have studied populations of different ages (10-71 years), used different methodologies and reported discrepant results. [8][9][10][11][12]30 Higher carotid but not aortic stiffness was displayed in young (aged 10-20 years) offspring of hypertensive parents than in offspring of normotensive parents; however, the comparisons were not adjusted for neither BP (which was already higher in the offspring of hypertensive group) nor gender. 9 Central and peripheral pulse pressure, and central augmentation index (but not brachial PWV) were higher in offspring with hypertensive parents than in the offspring of normotensive parents (mean age 43 years); however, this study failed to show significant differences between women with positive and negative parental history of hypertension when data were analysed separately by gender.…”

“…[8][9][10][11][12]30 Higher carotid but not aortic stiffness was displayed in young (aged 10-20 years) offspring of hypertensive parents than in offspring of normotensive parents; however, the comparisons were not adjusted for neither BP (which was already higher in the offspring of hypertensive group) nor gender. 9 Central and peripheral pulse pressure, and central augmentation index (but not brachial PWV) were higher in offspring with hypertensive parents than in the offspring of normotensive parents (mean age 43 years); however, this study failed to show significant differences between women with positive and negative parental history of hypertension when data were analysed separately by gender. 11 The only study analyzing arterial stiffness in normotensive with three different parental hypertension burden, that were matched for age but not for gender and BMI, reported higher PWV and central augmentation index in subjects with one or both hypertensive parents, and subjects with both hypertensive parents displayed higher arterial stiffness indices than subjects with one hypertensive parent; however, the results were not analysed separately by gender.…”

“…Further, studies investigating the possible mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of family history of hypertension have demonstrated contradictory findings. For example, increased arterial stiffness in nonhypertensive offspring of hypertensive subjects have been shown in some [8][9][10] but not all studies. 11,12 Also, increased sympathetic activity in response to mental 13 or physical 14 stress has been shown in normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents, but there are contradictory findings relating to resting sympathetic activity.…”