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Physical activity is associated with lower pulsatile stress but not carotid stiffness in children

Abstract

The cardiovascular disease (CVD) process may begin early in life when accompanied by atherosclerotic risk factors. CVD risk factors in children are associated with stiffening of the large elastic arteries, a reflection of subclinical atherosclerosis. Physical activity is a preventative lifestyle strategy that may benefit arterial stiffness by attenuating the hemodynamic stress on the artery wall. This study examined the relations between physical activity, carotid pulsatile stress, and carotid stiffness in children. One hundred and forty children (9–11 yrs; 50.0% male, 57.9% African-American, 42.10% Caucasian, body mass index (BMI) 20.1 ± 4.7 kg/m2) participated in this study. Physical activity counts were measured using a wrist-worn accelerometer and averaged over 7 days. Carotid artery β-stiffness and pulse pressure (calibrated to brachial mean and diastolic pressure) were assessed as via ultrasound and tonometry, respectively. Pulsatile stress was calculated as the product of carotid pulse pressure and heart rate. Physical activity counts were correlated with pulsatile stress (r = −0.27), and BMI (r = −0.23), but were unrelated to carotid stiffness. In multivariate models, associations between physical activity counts and pulsatile stress remained (B = −1.3 [95%CI, −2.4, −0.2], β = −0.20, p < 0.05) after covariate adjustment for age, race, sex, pubertal stage, and BMI. Carotid pulsatile stress was related to regional carotid stiffness (r = 0.45, p < 0.05). These data suggest that higher levels of physical activity at young age are associated with lower hemodynamic stress in the carotid artery. Findings are discussed in the context of an inverse relationship between hemodynamic pulsatile stress and carotid stiffness in children.

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Fig. 1: Associations between physical activity counts and vascular parameters in children.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by NIH NIEHS R01 ES023252 02 (PI: BBG). WKL is currently supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL134634. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We wish to express our gratitude to the participants and their families/guardians for their willingness to participate in this study, and to the Environmental Exposures and Child Health Outcomes (EECHO) research team for their help with logistics and data collection.

Funding

This study was funded by NIH NIEHS R01 ES023252 02 (PI: BBG). WKL is currently supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL134634. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Lima, N.S., Krishna, H., Gerber, B.S. et al. Physical activity is associated with lower pulsatile stress but not carotid stiffness in children. J Hum Hypertens 36, 263–270 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-021-00506-7

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