Hypertension and cardiovascular risk in young adult life: insights from CAVI

One in seventeen adults below the age of 40 years are hypertensive with higher rates in those with particular predispositions such as a familial history or developmental exposures to pregnancy hypertension or preterm birth. Hypertension in early life significantly increases the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease before the age of 50 years and, to reduce this disease burden, interventions that target the distinct physiological mediators of blood pressure control in young people are required. This review highlights recent studies that have used a deep phenotyping approach to characterize the key phenotypic differences in vascular structure and physiology in young people that may be amenable to intervention.