The Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Continuum from Prenatal Life to Adulthood: A Literature Review

Maria Felicia Faienza, Flavia Urbano, Giuseppe Lassandro, Federica Valente, Gabriele D’Amato, Piero Portincasa and Paola Giordano
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Maria Felicia Faienza: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Pediatric Unit, University of Bari “A. Moro”, 70121 Bari, Italy
Flavia Urbano: Giovanni XXIII Pediatric Hospital, 70126 Bari, Italy
Giuseppe Lassandro: Giovanni XXIII Pediatric Hospital, 70126 Bari, Italy
Federica Valente: Department of Cardiology, Erasme University Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Gabriele D’Amato: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Di Venere Hospital, 70131 Bari, Italy
Piero Portincasa: Clinica Medica “A. Murri”, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Bari “A. Moro”, 70121 Bari, Italy
Paola Giordano: Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Pediatric Unit, University of Bari “A. Moro”, 70121 Bari, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 14, 1-10

Abstract: The risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) arises from the interaction of prenatal factors; epigenetic regulation; neonatal factors; and factors that affect childhood and adolescence, such as early adiposity rebound (AR) and social and environmental influences. Thus, CVD risk varies between the group of low-risk metabolically healthy normal-weight subjects (MHNW); the intermediate-risk group, which includes metabolically healthy obese (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy normal-weight subjects (MUHNW); and the high-risk group of metabolically unhealthy obese (MUHO) subjects. In this continuum, several risk factors come into play and contribute to endothelial damage, vascular and myocardial remodeling, and atherosclerotic processes. These pathologies can occur both in prenatal life and in early childhood and contribute to significantly increasing CVD risk in young adults over time. Early intervention in the pediatric MUHO population to reduce the CVD risk during adulthood remains a challenge. In this review, we focus on CVD risk factors arising at different stages of life by performing a search of the recent literature. It is urgent to focus on preventive or early therapeutic strategies to stop this disturbing negative metabolic trend, which manifests as a continuum from prenatal life to adulthood.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases (CVDs); risk factors; obesity; metabolic syndrome; prenatal; epigenetic; childhood; adulthood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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