Weighty heart issues
March 4, 2013
THE walls of the aorta are already
thickened in babies born to
mothers who are overweight or
obese, according to a University of
Sydney study.
The study looked at 23 women,
defined a BMI of more than 25 kg/
m2 as overweight or obese, and
involved a scan of the abdominal
aorta of each newborn within
seven days of birth to find out the
thickness of the internal walls-the
intima and media.
The thickening of this main artery
is an indication of early
atherosclerosis, the disease that
leads to the majority of heart
attacks and strokes.
According to the results, the
babies’ intima-media thickness
ranged from 0.65 to 0.97 mm, and
was associated with the mother's
weight (the higher a mother's
weight, the higher the baby's
intima-media thickness,
irrespective of how much the baby
weighed at birth).
“To our knowledge, this is the
first study demonstrating that
being an overweight or obese
mother can itself potentially lead to
poor health of the blood vessels,
which is consistent with higher risk
of heart disease and stroke in later
life,” the researchers said.
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