P229 INFLUENCE OF ASTHMA ON BLOOD PRESSURE OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: THE ASMAVIX PROJECT

Background and Objectives: Asthma is a prevalent disease in children and the chronic inflammatory may affect blood vessel stiffness and blood pressure (BP). Systolic BP increases progressively along the childhood tending to reach stable values at the beginning of adulthood. Higher BP levels in infancy predispose to hypertension development hypertension in adulthood. Our aim was to investigate the influence of asthma on the age-dependent BP increase in children and adolescents. Methods Asthmatic (Asth, n = 166), 7-15 years (67% boys) attending to Public Health Units of Vitória (an industrialized city of the coastal plain of southeastern Brazil) were included. Non-asthmatic children (N-Asth, n =50; 33% boys) living in the neighborhood of Asth were used as controls. Clinic and laboratory exams were performed in an outpatient clinic at the University Hospital. BP was measured with an oscillometric device (Onrom HBP 1100) and large artery stiffness was estimated by carotid-to-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV; Complior SP-2). The 90th percentile of systolic or diastolic BP was used to identify high BP considering gender, age, and height. Age-dependent BP increase was determined by linear regression with and without adjustment for covariates (gender and body mass index). Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results Asth and N-Asth groups were similar (p>0.05) considering age (11.7 ± 2.3 vs 11.1 ± 2.1 years), body mass index (20.2 ± 4.2 vs 20.3 ± 5.7 kg/m2), systolic (102 ± 11 vs 104 ± 10 mmHg) and diastolic (62 ± 7 vs 63 ±8 mmHg) BP. However, cf-PWV was higher in Asth (48.9 ± 9.0 vs 44.0 ± 9.1 cm/s; p<0.01). The crude age-dependent systolic BP increase was 34% higher in the Asth group (1.74 mmHg/year; 95%CL 1.06;2.43 vs 1.37 mmHg/year; 95% CL 0.02;2.72). This difference remained similar after adjusting for gender and body mass index (1.47 mmHg/year; 95%CL 0.80; 2.14 vs 1.10; -0.47;2.67). The percentage of children with elevated BP was higher in the Asth group (10.2% vs 4.0%). Conclusion: The higher stiffness of large arteries seems to accelerate the systolic BP increase along childhood and adolescence and may predispose to an earlier onset of hypertension in adulthood. Acknowledgment: This study was supported with grants from ArcelorMittal, CNPq and Fapes.