Abstract

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is now recognised as a paediatric problem despite the fact that clinical symptoms of this disease do not become apparent until much later in life. Epidemiological studies of risk factors in children have now been concluded. These studies suggest that the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adults, which include a family history of heart disease, elevated blood lipids (serum cholesterol and triglycerides), obesity, hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus and inadequate physical activity, can be identified in children. Several investigators have reported the existence of one or more risk factors in more than 50 of the children they have examined. It is now clear that we can detect most children who are potentially at risk for CHD. The notion of tracking some of the most common CHD risk factors in children has been used in several studies. Results from this type of research indicate that children who are at the extreme end of the distribution and have high levels of blood pressure, adverse lipid levels and are obese will continue to exhibit these coronary risk factors as they grow. Verf.-Referat