Endothelial and metabolic disorders in adolescence: low birth weight is not an isolated risk factor

BACKGROUND: Low birth weight (LBW) seems to be a determining factor for many cardiovascular diseases in adult life. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to investigate the occurrence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and endothelial dysfunction in adolescents with LBW and compare them with subjects with normal birth weights (NBW). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study evaluated 172 adolescents (86 in each group) aged 10-20 years, who were born in a reference maternity hospital. The following criteria were adopted: International Diabetes Federation parameters for the diagnosis of MetS and flow-mediated brachial artery dilatation for endothelial dysfunction. Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney tests were used for continuous variables (depending on the normality of distribution evaluated by the Shapiro-Wilk test), and the Fisher exact test was used for categorical variables. The significance level was determined at 0.05. RESULTS: MetS was present in three cases of LBW and in four cases of NBW (p=0.70). The number of components of the syndrome was, on average, 0.6 and 0.5 in LBW and NBW, respectively (p=0.77). Endothelial dysfunction occurred in 25 (29.1%) cases of LBW and in 31 (36.1%) cases of NBW (p=0.33). CONCLUSION: LBW did not represent a risk factor in the occurrence of MetS or endothelial dysfunction in adolescence.