Advance in Vascular Phenotype Assessment in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Cardiovascular damage occurring in adults finds its roots in risk factors operating early in life. Among the factors influencing cardiovascular risk, blood pressure values represent an important measurable marker of the level of potential cardiovascular risk in children and adolescents. Indeed, there is growing evidence that mild blood pressure elevations are much more common than was thought in the past in a pediatric population. Furthermore, hypertension in childhood has gained ground in cardiovascular medicine thanks to the progress made in several areas of pathophysiological and clinical research.1 It is not uncommon for high blood pressure in the young to be accompanied by evidence of early organ damage, left ventricular hypertrophy, and increased carotid intima-media thickness. Likewise, functional changes in the vascular tree that are both the cause, as well as the consequence, of early vascular alterations can also be detected.2 Evidence of both early blood pressure elevation and alterations in vascular function have been described in children and adolescents under different conditions that predispose an individual to increased cardiovascular risk.3 Vascular phenotypes of large and small vessels provide a novel viewpoint for studying when target organ damage …