Children with lower birthweight have higher forearm vascular resistance - abstract

ABSTRACT

Undernutrition in utero is associated with the development of hypertension in rat models, as well as in man. The nature of this association remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of pregnancy programming on blood pressure and forearm blood flow in children. Subjects were randomly selected from the upper, middle and lowest quintiles of a distribution based on their birthweights. There were no significant differences in anthropometry and resting indices of cardiovascular response. Children were tested, using cold pressor test (CT) and mental arithmetic (M). Thus children in the lowest quintile of this population experienced greater change in FVR and FBF to the cold pressor test than their counterparts in the middle and upper quintiles. They also showed greater changes in SBP, HR, and RPP with mental arithmetic testing. Children in the middle and lower quintiles had higher SBP to the cold pressor test. The results demonstrate that children in the lowest quintile of this population have increased cardiovascular reactivity to standard laboratory stressors - table included (AU)