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Pulse wave velocity during re-feeding and with weight gain in underweight female adolescents with anorexia nervosa

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 37, pages 1126–1128 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) causes harmful underweight and important cardiovascular acute complications however less is known about longer-term cardiovascular risk. We measured carotid femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) in a group of underweight young women with AN at baseline and weekly as they were refed and gained weight. PWV decreased over time and was negatively associated with increasing BMI and calorific meal content suggesting potential positive cardiovascular benefits for refeeding and weight gain in AN and supports current consensus for the importance of weight gain in underweight young women with AN.

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Fig. 1: Graphs of changes in key variables over time and tables of longitudinal models.

Data availability

Additional data are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank the young people who took part in the study.

Funding

The study was funded by a competitive charitable grant by “Former EMS School” in the United Kingdom.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GOS UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK

    Lee D. Hudson, Mario Cortina Borja & Russell Viner

  2. Ellern Mede Eating Disorder, London, UK

    Hind Al-Khairulla & Matthew Maicoo

  3. UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, London, UK

    Alicja Rapala, Vivek Muthurangu & Alun Hughes

  4. Dept Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Dasha Nicholls

  5. Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK

    Andrew Taylor

Authors
  1. Lee D. Hudson
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  2. Hind Al-Khairulla
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  3. Matthew Maicoo
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  4. Mario Cortina Borja
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  5. Alicja Rapala
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  6. Russell Viner
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  7. Dasha Nicholls
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  8. Andrew Taylor
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  9. Vivek Muthurangu
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  10. Alun Hughes
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Contributions

LH conceptualised and designed the study with input from HA-K, AT, AR, DN, RV and AH. Study delivery was managed by LH, MM, HA_K. Data was collected by MM. Analysis was performed by LH and MCB. LH and AH produced the first draft, but all authors contributed expertise and input to the final content of the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lee D. Hudson.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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We received research ethics approval from a London health research ethics committee.

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Hudson, L.D., Al-Khairulla, H., Maicoo, M. et al. Pulse wave velocity during re-feeding and with weight gain in underweight female adolescents with anorexia nervosa. J Hum Hypertens 37, 1126–1128 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-023-00848-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-023-00848-4

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