Increased arterial stiffness in children with a parental history of hypertension

The vascular dynamics of children with a parental history of hypertension h as not been defined. The purpose of the current study was to determine whet her or not these children have different arterial stiffness compared to the offspring of normotensive parents. One hundred healthy, nonobese subjects (ages 10-21 years) were divided into two groups of 50. Group A included the offspring of hypertensive patients and group B the offspring of normotensi ve parents. The variables studied were body surface area, blood pressure, a nd systolic and diastolic diameters of the aortic and carotid arteries as w ell as maximum velocity flow of these vessels. Carotid and aortic stiffness were calculated. Children and adolescents with a parental history of hyper tension had higher carotid stiffness and smaller carotid diameters. These d ifferences continued to be significant when correcting for body surface are a. A higher blood pressure and a greater body surface area were also found.