OBJECTIVETo explore young hypertensive people's vascular endothelial dysfunction and the early atherosclerosis changes.

METHODSRural youth subjects aged 20 to 35 in 6 villages were randomly selected from 20 villages of 3 townships, including Qili, Laojun and Shayan, in Hanzhong, Shanxi, China, from March to April of 2005, to survey their blood pressure and other related factors. 97 subjects with high blood pressure (hypertensive group) were detected while 400 with normal blood pressure (normal group). We measured their brachial artery flow-mediated vascular endothelial-dependent diastolic function (FMD) and the carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) by high resolution vascular ultrasound method, and other biochemical indexes.

RESULTSThe body mass index (BMI) ((24.7 ± 4.3) kg/m²), waistline ((84.1 ± 11.7) cm), hipline ((92.5 ± 7.4) cm), TC ((4.6 ± 0.8) mmol/L), LDL-C ((2.8 ± 0.5) mmol/L), TG ((1.7 ± 1.1) mmol/L) and the blood insulin (INS) ((8.6 ± 4.4) mIu/L) were all significantly increased in young hypertensive group than those in normotensive group (respectively were (22.1 ± 3.0) kg/m(2), (76.7 ± 8.9) cm, (88.9 ± 5.6) cm, (4.3 ± 0.7) mmol/L, (2.6 ± 0.4) mmol/L, (1.4 ± 0.8) mmol/L and (6.9 ± 2.1) mIu/L) (P < 0.05). The FMD of the brachial artery in hypertensive group was markedly lower than normal group ((0.103 ± 0.04)% and (0.117 ± 0.05)%, P < 0.05). The IMT of two groups were (0.49 ± 0.07) mm and (0.48 ± 0.07) mm, but there was no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONYoung hypertensive people with a few cardiovascular risk factors earlier appear dysfunction of the flow-mediated vascular endothelial-dependent dilation, which is prior to the increase in carotid IMT.