Key result
Blood pressure links to arterial stiffness, while BMI primarily drives left ventricular mass index.
Why the study?
High blood pressure and excess weight can lead to early cardiovascular organ damage in children, but their relationship with arterial stiffness and left ventricular mass index needed evaluation.
Do elevated blood pressure and excess body weight have different effects on arterial stiffness and cardiac mass in children?
Cross-Sectional (n=343)
No
Do elevated blood pressure and excess body weight have different effects on arterial stiffness and cardiac mass in children?
In children, high blood pressure and excess weight exert differentiated early target organ damage, with blood pressure primarily affecting arterial stiffness and weight primarily increasing left ventricular mass.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Differentiated BP and BMI effects on stiffness versus mass warrant separate pediatric assessment; leaves open longitudinal validation.
Background: High blood pressure (BP) and excess weight can lead to early cardiovascular organ damage already in children. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) is the non-invasive gold standard method for assessing aortic stiffness, while carotid-radial PWV (cr-PWV) provides information on the distensibility of the upper limb arteries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of BP and BMI z-scores with arterial stiffness and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in a pediatric population. Methods: In 343 children (57.7% males; age ± SD 11.7 ± 2.9 years), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) BP, BMI, cf-PWV, cr-PWV and LVMI were measured. A multiple linear regression model was used to assess the impact of BMI and SBP (or DBP) z-scores on cf-PWV, cr-PWV and LVMI. Results: About 21% of children were normal weight, 34% were overweight and 45% obese. Adjusted for possible confounders, SBP and DBP z-scores were significantly associated with cf-PWV (p < 0.001), while only DBP z-scores were related to cr-PWV (p < 0.01). BMI was neither associated with cf-PWV nor with cr-PWV values but was a strong predictor of LVMI (<0.001), whereas cardiac mass and BP z-scores were not related. Conclusions: Our study suggests that, in children, elevated BP values and excess weight may have different effects on the heart and the vessels in causing early cardiovascular alterations.
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Genovesi et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional in Pediatric cardiovascular risk (n=343). Elevated blood pressure and BMI z-scores vs. Normal blood pressure and normal weight was evaluated on Arterial stiffness (cf-PWV and cr-PWV) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) (p=<0.001). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure z-scores were significantly associated with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (p<0.001), whereas BMI z-score strongly predicted left ventricular mass index (p<0.001).
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