Traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease shown to have an impact on vascular function in young people
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It is well known that subclinical atherosclerosis begins already in childhood, with endothelial dysfunction as its earliest detectable manifestation. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) was assessed in 129 children and normalised for differences in eliciting shear rate stimulus between subjects (SR(AUC)). Peak oxygen uptake during an incremental treadmill exercise test (V O2peak) was used to assess fitness, whereas Actigraph accelerometers were employed to assess physical activity (PA). Body composition was measured by means of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. The cohort was split into tertiles of FMD% and FMD% adjusted for SR(AUC). Significant correlations were observed between FMD%/SR(AUC) and DEXA-percentage fat and percentage lean mass, and also with PA conducted at moderate-to-high intensity. A stronger relationship with all PA measures, particularly with high-intensity PA, was observed for children in the lowest FMD%/SR(AUC) tertile. High-intensity PA was the only predictor of impaired FMD%/SR(AUC). These findings suggest that traditional risk factors for CHD in adult populations influence vascular function in younger subjects, and that high-intensity PA may benefit children with impaired FMD.
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