Vascular reactivity in normotense teenagers between 15 and 16 years of age. Ernesto Guevara School, 2008

Abstract

A descriptive relational and cross-sectional study in normotense teenagers (15-16 years of age) of the Ernesto Che Guevara School was carried out from January to March 2008. Two groups were formed out of 1 414 teenagers levelled as vascular normo-reactive and hyper-reactive according to the results of a sustained weight test, with reference to 90 percentile of the systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure in the study population. The anthropometric variables and other risk factors such as vascular hyper-reactivity were taken into account. The hyper-reactive individuals ate larger amounts of fat and salt than the normo-reactive ones. The hyper-reactive teenagers presented mean values of weight (60.6 kg), body mass index (21.9), waist circumference (72.6cm) and waist-hip index (0.83) which were significantly higher than the mean values of the normo-reactive ones. The mean values of the systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure of the different basal measurements were significantly high in the difference between the two groups (p<0.00). A relation of statistical significance between the vascular hyper-reactivity and the risk factors of a diet with excessive salt and fat, and between the anthropometric variables and the values of the blood pressure, was determined.