Decreased Arterial Elasticity Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in the Young

Noninvasive ultrasonic examinations were performed in 1984 on a biracial sample of 109 10-to 17-year-old adolescents to determine whether elastic properties of the carotid arterles are associated with cardlovascular disease risk factors in the young. The subjects examined were in either the upper (high risk) or lower (low risk) race sex-, and age-specific tertile for both serum total chotesterol(TC) and systolic blood pressure(SBP) during a 1981–82 community survey. The pressure-strain elastic modulus(Ep), a measure of stiffness, for the carotid arterles was calculated by dividing the pulse pressure by the fractional diameter increase in the carotid artery during the cardiac cycle, as measured by ultrasonic techniques. Repeat studies on 20 randomly selected subjects demonstrated high reproducibility of the elasticity measurements (intraclass correlation coefficlent=0.84). The mean Ep in the high risk group was 5.1 kpa higher than in the low risk group, after controlling for race, sex, and age (one sided p < value=0.03). Furthermore, a positive parental history of muocardial infarction was related to increased Eplevels(p < 0.05), independently of race, sex, age, TC, and SBP. The results indicate that ultrasonic techniques can detect functional differences in the carotid arterles of children and adolescents that are associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.