Blood pressure in prospective population based cohort of newborn and infant twins

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Abstract
Objective : To describe blood pressure in twins during infancy. Design : Prospective study of cohort of twins. Setting : Teaching hospital in Florida. Subjects : 166 viable twin pairs born between July 1976 and December 1989. Main outcome measures : Blood pressure and body weight at birth, at 14 days, and at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Results : Both systolic and diastolic pressure correlated with body weight throughout infancy (at birth r=0.41, P Conclusions : Blood pressure and body weights in twins showed strongly positive but generally declining correlations throughout infancy. Twins of lower birth weight showed a more rapid rate of rise in blood pressure during infancy. At 1 year the catch up in blood pressure exceeded that in body weight. Greater differences in birth weights between monozygotic twins were associated with smaller differences in systolic blood pressure at 1 year, suggesting that intrauterine environmental factors related to birth weight are important in determining blood pressure in infancy.