Childhood Risk Factors and Prediction of Adult Cardiovascular End Points

Children almost never have myocardial infarctions or other adverse cardiovascular (CV) events, yet there has long been evidence that atherosclerosis may be found on postmortem examination of youths who have died accidently.(1-3) Indeed, cohort studies such as the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, the Bogalusa Heart Study, and the Muscatine Study have shown increased coronary-artery calcification(4,5) and increased carotid-artery intima-media thickness among adolescents.(6-8) But direct evidence that CV risk factors in childhood are linked to hard CV disease (CVD) outcomes in adulthood has been elusive. And no wonder! Given the length of each human generation, studies that aim to . . .