Key indicators of cardiovascular health, such as blood pressure and arterial stiffness, are headed in the wrong direction in "chunky" adolescents, researchers say.
Much as their weight falls in between their thinner and heavier peers, cardiovascular indicators do as well, says Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Medical College of Georgia.
"This is a wakeup call to parents and physicians to pay more attention to children who fall somewhere in the middle because they likely are headed toward being fatter and at increased risk of cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Dong.
He presents his findings May 10 during the Inter-American Society of Hypertension and the Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control Scientific Sessions in Miami.
"We tend to ignore these people," says Dr. Dong, who looked at cardiovascular measures for 972 healthy adolescents with a mean age of nearly 18. The adolescents were part of the Georgia Cardiovascular Twin Study, led by Dr. Frank Treiber, on how environmental stress impacts cardiovascular health.
About 17 percent of the black and white identical and fraternal twins had mid-range body mass, which is weight divided by height.
"Almost everything was in between," says Dr. Dong. For example, the whites had about a 2-mmHg increase in casual and ambulatory systolic blood pressure (the top number taken when the heart is contracting) as he looked across the three categories of kids from thinnest to heaviest.
Although the incremental increases dont guarantee eventual hypertension, its not a good sign, says Dr. Dong. "If you become hypertensive when you are 42, it doesnt go up just like that," he says, snapping his fingers. "Blood pressure in your adolescence will track to your adulthood, so its likely there will be amplification when you get older."
In blacks and whites, incremental increases in blood pressure even showed up at night, when pressu
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Contact: Toni Baker
tbaker@mcg.edu
706-721-4421
Medical College of Georgia
10-May-2007