Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health of 74 Children From Women Previously Diagnosed With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in Comparison With a Population-Based Reference Cohort.

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have compromised cardiovascular health profiles and an increased risk of pregnancy complications. In order to evaluate potential consequences, we aim to compare the cardiovascular and metabolic health of the children from women with PCOS with a population-based reference cohort. We included children from women with PCOS between the age of 2.

Synaptic UNC13A protein variant causes increased neurotransmission and dyskinetic movement disorder.

Munc13 proteins are essential regulators of neurotransmitter release at nerve cell synapses. They mediate the priming step that renders synaptic vesicles fusion-competent, and their genetic elimination causes a complete block of synaptic transmission. Here we have described a patient displaying a disorder characterized by a dyskinetic movement disorder, developmental delay, and autism.

Biomarker Profiles in Women with PCOS and PCOS Offspring; A Pilot Study.

Objective: To study metabolic/inflammatory biomarker risk profiles in women with PCOS and PCOS offspring.

Design: Cross-sectional comparison of serum biomarkers.

Setting: University Medical Center Utrecht.

Relation Between Circulating Inflammatory Chemokines and Vascular Characteristics in Healthy, Young Children.

Background: Atherosclerosis begins in childhood with the occurrence of inflammatory vascular wall alterations that are detectable with B-mode ultrasound. Chemokines appear to be involved in the development of these alterations given that they occur early in the atherosclerotic pathway as mediators of vascular inflammation. However, this has not extensively been investigated.

Allergies are associated with arterial changes in young children.

Background: Inflammation is important in atherosclerosis development. Whether common causes of inflammation, such as allergies and infections, already exert this influence in early childhood is unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between both allergies and infections with children's vasculature.

Extracellular vesicle protein CD14 relates to common carotid intima-media thickness in eight-year-old children.

Background: Atherosclerosis is a process that begins in childhood, develops over decades and underlies the majority of cardiovascular events in adulthood. Previously, we demonstrated in adults with cardiovascular disease that levels of extracellular vesicle (EV) proteins CD14, Serpin F2 and cystatin C predict vascular outcome. Here, we study for the first time whether these EV proteins are related to vascular characteristics in healthy, young children.

Effect of physical activity on vascular characteristics in young children.

Background: Physical activity has long been proposed as an important modifiable cardiovascular risk factor in adults. We assessed whether physical activity already has an effect on childhood vasculature.

Methods: In the Wheezing-Illnesses-Study-in-Leidsche-Rijn birth cohort, we performed vascular ultrasound to measure carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and functional properties (distensibility, elastic modulus) at 5 and 8 years of age.

Life-course of cardio-respiratory associations.

Background: Several studies have shown that raised cardiovascular risk factors are associated with an impaired lung function in adulthood. Whether this association also exists in the young is unknown. Our aim was to study the relation between blood pressure and lung function from neonatal to elderly age.

Excess early postnatal weight gain leads to thicker and stiffer arteries in young children.

Background: Although early life growth pattern is associated with cardiovascular disease later in life, it is unknown whether vascular changes associated with excess early weight gain already occur in early childhood.

Methods: In the Wheezing-Illnesses-Study-Leidsche-Rijn (WHISTLER) birth cohort, weight and height from birth to 3 months of age were used to calculate Z-scores of individual weight and length gain rates. In the first 333 children who turned 5 years old, intima-media thickness, distensibility, and elastic modulus of the carotid artery were measured ultrasonographically.

Parental blood pressure is related to vascular properties of their 5-year-old offspring.

Background: Adolescent offspring of hypertensive parents have increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) and arterial stiffness compared with offspring of normotensives. We assessed whether systolic blood pressure (SBP) of both parents is associated with the vasculature of their offspring as early as in childhood.

Methods: In the first 306 5-year-old children of the Wheezing-Illnesses-Study-Leidsche-Rijn birth cohort, CIMT, distensibility, and elastic modulus (EM) were obtained ultrasonographically.

Excess early postnatal weight gain leads to increased abdominal fat in young children.

Background. Increased childhood weight gain has been associated with later adiposity. Whether excess early postnatal weight gain plays a role in childhood abdominal fat is unknown.

Body fat distribution and early arterial changes in healthy 5-year-old children.

Background: It is unknown at what age overweight starts to takes its toll on the vasculature. We studied the relation between body size measures and vascular characteristics in healthy 5-year-old children.

Methods: In 306 5-year-old children from an on-going birth cohort, body size characteristics were measured, including sonographic measurement of abdominal fat.

The association between breastfeeding and the cardiovascular system in early childhood.

Background: Breastfeeding is suggested to have beneficial effects on children's health and future health status. However, its cardiovascular effects in childhood and possibly later in life remain largely unclear.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the cardiovascular effects of exclusive breastfeeding in early childhood.