[Does an early heart attack in a parent indicate increased cardiovascular risk in the offspring?]

In a 5-year period analyzed were cardiovascular risk factors in 55 patients suffering from premature coronary accidents (below the age of 45) and in their 97 offsprings, aged 3-26 years. In 50 of these children (51.6%), 22 girls and 28 boys, in addition to the obvious positive family history, detected were other cardiovascular risk factors. The most common among them was hypercholesterolemia (in 45.0%), followed by arterial hypertension (40.0%), obesity (32.0%) and smoking (24.0%). Majority of these offsprings (64.0%) had only one additional risk factor. The average blood pressure, relative weight and cholesterol levels were significantly higher in these very children than in all the coronary offsprings (p < 0.05), and even more so (p < 0.01) than in the matching control sample.