Key result
Sensitive measures of vascular structure and function are needed to evaluate the effects of lifestyle interventions in premenopausal women, as traditional risk factors often do not capture subclinical changes.
Why the study?
Despite differences in future cardiovascular risk, brachial blood pressures might be similar between premenopausal women with favorable versus unfavorable lifestyle behaviors, warranting more sensitive vascular measurements.
Sensitive vascular measurements such as arterial stiffness and endothelial function should be utilized to better evaluate the effects of lifestyle interventions on cardiovascular risk in premenopausal women.
Lifestyle behaviors in midlife may lower future CVD risk in women; leaves open whether premenopausal interventions alter outcomes.
Premenopausal women generally have a favorable cardiovascular risk profile, owing to young age and the protective effects of estrogen. Rates of hypertension and more advanced cardiovascular disease (CVD) are low in premenopausal women. A large body of epidemiological evidence has shown that lifestyle behaviors in midlife, i.e., cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity, and healthy diet, are associated with lower risk of overt CVD and adverse cardiovascular outcomes in the future for men and women. Despite differences in future cardiovascular risk, brachial blood pressures might be similar between premenopausal women with favorable vs. unfavorable levels of lifestyle behaviors in early-to-mid-life. Here we make the case for deeper phenotyping by means of vascular function measurements, such as arterial stiffness, augmentation index, and endothelial function, to identify potential mechanistic pathways linking lifestyle behaviors in early-to-mid-adulthood with lifelong CVD risk in women. We describe considerations for vascular function measurement in premenopausal women and opportunities for investigators to fill in knowledge gaps to further our understanding of CVD risk assessment and CVD progression in premenopausal women.
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Lane‐Cordova et al. (2020) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease risk. Sensitive vascular measurements (e.g., arterial stiffness, endothelial function) vs. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., brachial blood pressure) was evaluated. Sensitive measures of vascular structure and function are needed to evaluate the effects of lifestyle interventions in premenopausal women, as traditional risk factors often do not capture subclinical changes.
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