Study of early detection of cardiovascular risk factors in children born small (SGA) and review of literature.

Many children are born small for gestational age (SGA), due to intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and in recent years we have witnessed an increase in the prevalence of this problem. In our region, Aragon, 5% of children (between 550-600 per year) are born SGA, which represents a serious public health problem. Some studies have suggested that these patients have a higher risk of suffering from high blood pressure (HBP), dyslipidemia, obesity, insulin resistant diabetes and atherosclerosis in adulthood. Nevertheless other publications do not support this hypothesis, so given the lack of consensus on the potential risks of this situation, we believed it would be interesting to study, at an early stage of life, whether a sample of children born SGA would present greater cardiovascular risk factors than children born with an adequate weight for gestational age (AGA).