Associations of Birth Weight and Postnatal Weight Gain With Cardiometabolic Risk Parameters at 5 Years of Age

The present prospective study assessed the impact of birth weight (BW) and postnatal weight gain on blood pressure and metabolic profile during the first 5 years of life. One hundred thirty-nine newborns (63 women) born at term after uncomplicated pregnancies and in the absence of perinatal illness were included. Subjects were divided according to size at birth in small, appropriate, and large for gestational age. After the initial evaluation on the second day of life, infants were followed up at 6 months and 2 and 5 years. Anthropometric parameters and blood pressure were measured at each visit and metabolic assessment was performed at 5 years of age. Among the BW groups, mothers did not d…

Determinants of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in the First Decade of Life

The present prospective study assessed the association of birth weight (BW) and growth pattern on cardiometabolic risk factors in a cohort followed from birth to 10 years of age. One hundred and forty-five subjects (73 girls) who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and had all their data recorded at birth and at 5 years were enrolled. Of these, 100 (52 girls) also recorded data at 10 years. Anthropometric measurements, office and 24-hour blood pressure, and metabolic parameters were obtained. At 5 years, both BW and current weight were determinants of blood pressure and metabolic parameters; however, as the subjects got older, the impact of body size increased. Higher BW and maternal obesity i…

Longitudinal study of DNA methylation during the first 5 years of life

[Background]: Early life epigenetic programming influences adult health outcomes. Moreover, DNA methylation levels have been found to change more rapidly during the first years of life. Our aim was the identification and characterization of the CpG sites that are modified with time during the first years of life. We hypothesize that these DNA methylation changes would lead to the detection of genes that might be epigenetically modulated by environmental factors during early childhood and which, if disturbed, might contribute to susceptibility to diseases later in life. [Methods]: The study of the DNA methylation pattern of 485577 CpG sites was performed on 30 blood samples from 15 subjects,…

Uric acid is linked to cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight and obese youths.

OBJECTIVE Observational studies have indicated that high levels of serum uric acid are associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study is to investigate the association of uric acid with individual cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as their degree of clustering, in overweight and moderate obese youth. METHODS Three hundred and thirty-three Caucasians of both sexes (149 women), from 5-18 years of age from those who underwent an assessment of overweight/obesity. Anthropometric parameters, office and 24-h blood pressure measurements and metabolic profile, including HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, HOMA index and uric acid were assessed. RESULTS Uric…

Assessment of ten trace elements in umbilical cord blood and maternal blood: association with birth weight

Background Trace elements are an essential nutritional component for humans and inadequate tissue-concentrations may have a significant effect on fetal size. Objective To measure ten trace elements in blood samples from mothers and their newborns, and assess their association with anthropometric characteristics at birth. The effects of other factors on fetal growth, such as biologic characteristics of the infant and mother, were analysed. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Hospital general, University of Valencia, Spain. Healthy pregnant women, and their full-term infants were selected (n = 54 paired samples). Infants were grouped according to birth weight: small for gesta…

Reduction in aortic compliance in adolescents with suboptimal intrauterine growth

Birth weight impacts on wave reflections in children and adolescents.

The objective of the present study was to assess central aortic pressure and wave reflection in children and adolescents at different birth weights. Two hundred nineteen healthy children (126 girls), from 7 to 18 years of age (mean, 11.3 years) and born at term after a normotensive pregnancy, were included. The subjects were divided according to birth weight: <2.5 kg, from 2.5 to 2.999 kg, from 3.0 to 3.5 kg, and >3.5 kg. Pressure waveforms were recorded from the radial artery of the wrist, and the waveform data were then processed by the SphygmoCor radial/aortic transform software module to produce the estimated aortic pressure waveform. Augmentation index, an estimate of the pulse …

Sexual Dimorphism in the Transition From Masked to Sustained Hypertension in Healthy Youths

The risk and factors related to the development of hypertension among healthy youths with elevated ambulatory and normal conventional blood pressure, masked hypertension, have not been established. We performed a long-term follow-up study assessing how hypertension develops over time in healthy, masked hypertensive youths. The potential sex dimorphism in the incidence and timing of the development of hypertension has been analyzed. In a long-term follow-up study (median follow-up, 36 months), we enrolled 272 healthy conventional normotensive youths (aged 6–18 years; 55.8% girls) of whom 39 had masked hypertension at baseline. Development of sustained hypertension (hypertension in both conv…

Factors related to quality of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in a pediatric population.

To assess the factors related to the quality of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in a pediatric population, we performed 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitorings on 333 unselected children aged 3 to 18 years using a Spacelabs 90207 monitor. For each individual, the percentages of valid measurements (ratio between valid and total number of measurements, 76.4% +/-15.6%) and of successful measurements (percentage of valid preset measurements, 89.8% +/- 11.5%) were calculated. Two hundred eighty-one (84.1%) monitorings had a successful measurement rate of >80%. Two hundred thirteen (64%) were of excellent quality, as defined by the percentage of successful measurements being higher than o…