Maternal alcohol intake and offspring pulse wave velocity.
BACKGROUND
Intrauterine exposure to alcohol may affect cardiovascular development, increasing risk of cardiovascular malformations. Intrauterine exposure to light maternal alcohol intake has been reported to affect human umbilical arterial contractility, and adult sheep exposed in utero have had altered cerebrovascular reactivity. In human adults, alcohol intake affects arterial stiffness.


OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether intrauterine exposure to alcohol was associated with childhood pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness.


METHODS
On postnatal day 4, mothers of 147 twin pairs born in Tasmania from 1991 to 1993 reported alcohol intake during each trimester of pregnancy. At 9 years, child PWV was assessed over carotid-femoral and femoral-dorsalis pedis arterial segments by applanation tonometry.


RESULTS
Carotid-femoral PWV was 0.2 m/s (95% CI 0.06, 0.4) higher (indicating stiffer vessels) in children whose mothers drank alcohol in the 2nd trimester rather than abstained, after adjusting for potential confounding factors. A similar effect was not seen for femoral-dorsalis pedis PWV. Findings were independent of child blood pressure which correlated strongly with PWV. Alcohol intake varied little between trimesters, so it was not possible to assess the effect of timing of exposure.


CONCLUSIONS
Carotid-femoral PWV in adults is predictive of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The degree of continuity between childhood and adulthood PWV is unknown, but as we found an association between prenatal alcohol exposure and carotid-femoral PWV at 9 years, a permanent change in vessel wall structure or function is possible. These findings need to be confirmed in other and larger cohorts, and mechanistic animal studies are needed.
Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Clayton, Vic., Australia. ruth.morley@mcri.edu.au
Ruth
R
Morley
Terence
T
Dwyer
Kristen L
KL
Hynes
Jennifer
J
Cochrane
Anne-Louise
AL
Ponsonby
Helena C
HC
Parkington
John B
JB
Carlin
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000187:drug effects*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002648:Child; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009099:Multiple Birth Offspring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013648:Tasmania / Q000453:epidemiology; D014427:Twins
D000431:Ethanol