Categories
· Health/Science
· Secondhand Smoke
· Pregnancy
· Cardio-vascular
· Parenting / Family issues
non-USA, by Country
· Netherlands
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Jump to full article: Medical Tribune, 2011-12-26
Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
Intro: Parental smoking during pregnancy may cause vascular damage when the children reach 5 years of age, according to the results of a birth cohort study published online December 26 and in the January 2012 print issue of Pediatrics.
"Smoking during pregnancy has been related to thicker carotid intima media thickness in young adults, and this was also shown in neonates," write Caroline C. Geerts, MD, from the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care and University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and colleagues. "The relation between smoke exposure in early life, the prenatal period in particular, and the vascular development of young children is largely unknown."
To evaluate the association between parental smoking during pregnancy and subsequent vascular characteristics in their children, the investigators used data from the birth cohort enrolled in the Wheezing Illnesses Study Leidsche Rijn (WHISTLER)-Cardio study. At 5 years of age, 259 participants underwent ultrasonographic measurement of carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) and arterial wall distensibility. Parental smoking data were also updated.
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