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News — The higher systolic blood pressure is in children, the more likely they are to have hardened arteries in their late 30s and 40s, say Tulane University researchers. This analysis of data obtained every three to four years from Bogalusa Heart Study participants between 1973 and 2001 shows the importance of checking children's blood pressure, says lead author Shengxu Li.

Over the years, cigarette smoking and levels of HDL cholesterol and triglycerides also were predictive of hardened arteries early in adulthood, but systolic blood pressure stood out as the strongest predictor. "The changes in our cardiovascular system that lead to heart disease begin very silently and slowly," says cardiologist and study founder Gerald Berenson. "Our research is showing that these changes may begin even earlier than we had thought, which means we have the opportunity to start preventing heart disease beginning in childhood."

The article is available in the March issue of Hypertension, a Journal of the American Heart Association. It can be found online at:

The Bogalusa Heart Study is the longest running, biracial, community-based study of heart disease risk factors beginning in childhood in the world. Since its inception in 1973, Berenson and his staff have screened over 16,000 adults and children in the Bogalusa area in an effort to understand heart disease risk factors over the lifespan. Children who began the study in the 70s while they were in elementary school are now adults who continue to participate in the screening process. Moving from a pediatric study, the investigators are researching aging. Funding for the research comes from the National Institutes on Aging and Heart, Lung and Blood of the National Institutes of Health.