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 Researchers found a higher average blood pressure among teens born
through IVF than in children conceived naturally, according to a
report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Moreover, teens born through IVF were more likely to have blood
pressures high enough to be diagnosed with hypertension.
The researchers advise parents of children conceived with IVF to
concentrate on other heart disease risk factors.
"Eliminate additional cardiovascular risk factors, such as
overweight, sedentary lifestyle and smoking," suggests coauthor Dr.
Urs Scherrer of the University of Bern, Switzerland. Also, he
recommends, get a 24-hour blood pressure reading when the children
are between ages 16 and 20.
Scherrer and colleagues compared 54 teens conceived through IVF with
43 of their friends who had been conceived naturally. The teens'
average age was 17.
In adults, a blood pressure above 120/80 is considered high. But in
children and adolescents, a normal blood pressure depends on age and
height. If a youngster has a higher blood pressure than 90% to 95%
of other males or females his or her age and height, then the child
may have high blood pressure.
The IVF teens had higher blood pressure, on average, than their
friends (119/71 versus 115/69). Eight of the IVF teens were
diagnosed with hypertension, compared to one in the control group.
Five years earlier, researchers had checked blood pressures in both
groups and found no difference between IVF teens and their friends.
"Until adolescence there are no cardiovascular problems," Scherrer
said by email.
The conditions under which IVF embryos develop may play a role, he
suspects.
"There are numerous conditions which are not physiologic during the
in vitro period - temperature, mechanical insults related to embryo
handling, sub-optimal culture media, etc. - that the embryo needs to
cope with in order to survive, (and these) may have altered the
regulation of gene (expression)," Scherrer said.
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While the new findings are very interesting, the study is small,
said Dr. Alan Penzias, an associate professor of obstetrics,
gynecology and reproductive biology at the Harvard Medical School
and a fertility specialist at Boston IVF.
Findings of small studies are not always generalizable to the
population at large, Penzias said by email.
And while the researchers may have mitigated a number of possible
confounders by using the IVF children's friends as controls - the
control group was probably the best match for socioeconomic
background, for example - they didn't eliminate what might have been
the biggest variable: history of infertility, Penzias said.
"Is the finding in this paper caused by the IVF procedure or is it
caused by the infertility itself," Penzias asked.
Penzias points to a large 2012 study in the New England Journal of
Medicine that found a higher risk of birth defects in babies born to
couples with a history of infertility, regardless of whether the
babies were conceived naturally or with IVF.
Still, Penzias said, "tracking the outcomes of medical intervention
is prudent. Deciphering the mechanisms of disease to facilitate the
design of treatments that improve the human condition is a worthy
mission and is one that is universally endorsed."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2NkKe3w Journal of the American College of
Cardiology, online September 3, 2018.
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