This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 48/3/357    most recent 01.HYP.0000236552.04251.42v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Barker, D. J.P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Barker, D. J.P. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information High Blood Pressure Related Collections Clinical Studies Related Article

(Hypertension. 2006;48:357.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

Birth Weight and Hypertension

David J.P. Barker

From the Oregon Health and Science University, Heart Research Center, Portland, Ore.

Correspondence to David J.P. Barker, Oregon Health and Science University, Heart Research Center, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd, L-464, Portland, OR 97201-3098. E-mail djpb@mrc.soton.ac.uk

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

There is substantial literature showing that birth weight is associated with differences in blood pressure within the reference range. These differences are found in children and adults, but they tend to be small. A 1-kg increase in birth weight is associated with &3 mmHg lowering in systolic pressure. This association is one of the associations with low birth weight that led to the "fetal origins hypothesis," which proposes that the different forms of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes originate through undernutrition during fetal life and infancy.¹ Undernutrition at this time permanently changes the body’s structure and physiology. Like other living things humans are plastic during development, and their form and function is the product of the genes acquired at conception and of environmental influences, importantly nutrition, that regulate gene expression.

Huxley et al² recently reviewed 103 published studies on the association between birth weight and blood pressure. They concluded that the association was weaker in large studies than in small ones and was, therefore, an artifact, the product of a bias by which small studies are published only if they show large effects. The Lancet² published the review under the title "Unraveling the Fetal Origins Hypothesis." This was inappropriate, for a number of reasons.

A central issue in understanding the intrauterine origins of hypertension is reconciling the small effects of birth weight on blood pressure within the reference range with its large effects on the risk of hypertension requiring medication.³ One possibility is that lesions that accompany poor fetal . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Association Between Birth Weight and Blood Pressure Is Robust, Amplifies With Age, and May Be Underestimated

Anna A. Davies, George Davey Smith, Margaret T. May, and Yoav Ben-Shlomo
Hypertension 2006 48: 431-436. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Goyal, A. Galffy, S. A. Field, C. P. Gheorghe, A. Mittal, and L. D. Longo Maternal Protein Deprivation: Changes in Systemic Renin-Angiotensin System of the Mouse Fetus Reproductive Sciences, September 1, 2009; 16(9): 894 - 904. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Rasmussen and L. M. Irgens Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension in Women Who Were Born Small Hypertension, April 1, 2007; 49(4): 806 - 812. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]