Cardiac and vascular structural changes in normotensive subjects with parental hypertension

Objective: To evaluate whether a predisposition to hypertension is associated with early cardiac and vascular alterations. Subjects: Twenty-five normotensive subjects with both parents hypertensive (group 1) and 28 age- and sex-matched control subjects with both parents normotensive (group 2). Methods: In the two groups the measurements included: clinic blood pressure; left ventricular end-diastolic diameter, septal wall thickness and posterior wall thickness (by echocardiography); minimal forearm and calf vascular resistances (i.e. resistance assessed immediately after prolonged ischaemia, which depends on arteriolar wall thickness); and baseline and postischaemic radial artery compliance-pressure curves over the systolodiastolic pressure range (by echotracking device and finger blood pressure). Results: Group 1 had a slightly higher clinic blood pressure, and septal and posterior wall thickness, than group 2. Minimal forearm vascular resistance was clearly greater in group 1 than in ...