title: Birth weight and arterial hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide an overview of available evidence of the relationship between birth weight and future hypertension development.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fetal programming plays a significant role in future hypertension. Both low and high birth weight are able to influence weight gain during childhood, adult weight and blood pressure values during childhood and adulthood. To date, an increasing amount of evidence is available especially for the relationship between low birth weight and hypertension, supported also by pathophysiological studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the era of personalized medicine, the possibility to reduce cardiovascular risk before or soon after birth and intervene on risk factors during childhood is appealing and promising for the future.
authors.affiliation: aInstitute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council bDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Faconti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taddei
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ghiadoni
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012307:Risk Factors