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.