dmongking
11-21-2008, 12:31 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 19 - Tobacco smoke exposure during gestation induces vascular damage that becomes evident in early adulthood, Dutch investigators report in the December issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Young Adults (ARYA) study included 732 young adults, born between 1970 and 1973, who were evaluated at about 30 years of age. The research team at the University Medical Center Utrecht used ultrasonography to measure common carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), an indicator of vascular damage.
Offspring of the 215 mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a CIMT that was 13.4 m thicker than offspring of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy (p = 0.001), senior author Dr. Cuno S. P. M. Uiterwaal and colleagues report. CIMT was further increased among those whose mothers continued to smoke (13.9 m).
Even if the mothers did not smoke during pregnancy, paternal smoking during gestation was also associated with thicker CIMT (9.8 m) in the offspring. The association was strongest when both parents smoked during pregnancy.
Offspring of mothers who smoked were more likely to smoke themselves, and these subjects had the greatest increase in CIMT compared with nonsmokers who were not exposed intrauterine tobacco (24.3 m).
According to Dr. Uiterwaal and associates, "The interaction between participants' current smoking behavior and maternal smoking during pregnancy could indicate that if the cardiovascular system is exposed to tobacco smoke in utero, the vessels are more vulnerable to tobacco smoke later in life."
On the other hand, current smoking by women who abstained during pregnancy had no effect on their children's CIMT.
"Our findings were largely independent of other cardiovascular disease risk factors," the authors point out, lending plausibility to the notion of deleterious vascular effects from gestational exposure to tobacco smoke.
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Young Adults (ARYA) study included 732 young adults, born between 1970 and 1973, who were evaluated at about 30 years of age. The research team at the University Medical Center Utrecht used ultrasonography to measure common carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), an indicator of vascular damage.
Offspring of the 215 mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a CIMT that was 13.4 m thicker than offspring of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy (p = 0.001), senior author Dr. Cuno S. P. M. Uiterwaal and colleagues report. CIMT was further increased among those whose mothers continued to smoke (13.9 m).
Even if the mothers did not smoke during pregnancy, paternal smoking during gestation was also associated with thicker CIMT (9.8 m) in the offspring. The association was strongest when both parents smoked during pregnancy.
Offspring of mothers who smoked were more likely to smoke themselves, and these subjects had the greatest increase in CIMT compared with nonsmokers who were not exposed intrauterine tobacco (24.3 m).
According to Dr. Uiterwaal and associates, "The interaction between participants' current smoking behavior and maternal smoking during pregnancy could indicate that if the cardiovascular system is exposed to tobacco smoke in utero, the vessels are more vulnerable to tobacco smoke later in life."
On the other hand, current smoking by women who abstained during pregnancy had no effect on their children's CIMT.
"Our findings were largely independent of other cardiovascular disease risk factors," the authors point out, lending plausibility to the notion of deleterious vascular effects from gestational exposure to tobacco smoke.