Blood pressure and left ventricular mass in children with different maternal histories of hypertension: the Hypertension in Pregnancy Offspring Study.

OBJECTIVE

To study blood pressure and echocardiographically determined left ventricular mass in children born to mothers who had been hypertensive during the pregnancy and to assess the influence of a maternal factor for hypertension on blood pressure and left ventricular mass.

METHODS

Blood pressure was measured and M-mode echocardiography was performed in 42 children (aged 10.6-16.4 years) born to mothers who had been hypertensive during the pregnancy. For comparison, a control group of 17 children born after a normotensive pregnancy was used.

RESULTS

Children born to mothers who had had a hypertensive pregnancy and who showed sustained hypertension during a follow-up, had higher systolic (P < 0.001) and diastolic (P < 0.05) blood pressure. No differences in left ventricular mass were seen. There was a significant correlation between left ventricular mass and systolic blood pressure (r = 0.40; P < 0.01). In multivariate analyses both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were independently related to a familial factor for hypertension, whereas left ventricular mass was not related to a familial factor for hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS

Children born after a hypertensive pregnancy have higher blood pressure than children born after a normotensive pregnancy. A familial factor for hypertension was correlated with blood pressure, but not left ventricular mass in the children studied.