Cardiac and vascular health in late preterm infants

摘要: Adults who were born preterm are at increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in later life. Infants born late preterm are the majority of preterm births; however, the effect of late preterm on risk of cardiovascular disease is unclear. The objective of this study was to assess whether vascular health and cardiac autonomic control differ in a group of late preterm newborn infants compared to a group of term-born infants. A total of 35 healthy late preterm newborn infants, with normal growth (34–36 completed weeks’ gestation) and 139 term-born infants (37–42 weeks’ gestation) were compared in this study. Aortic wall thickening, assessed as aortic intima–media thickness (IMT) by high-resolution ultrasound, and cardiac autonomic control, assessed by heart rate variability, were measured during the first week of life. Postnatal age of full-term and late preterm infants at the time of the study was 5 days …