Association of Maternal Whole Blood Selenium with Cardiac Structure at 4 y of Age: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND

Currently, little is known about the relationship between maternal blood selenium levels and offspring cardiac structure.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate the association of maternal whole blood selenium levels during early pregnancy with children's cardiac structure at 4 y of age.

METHODS

Using data from the Shanghai Birth Cohort, this study analyzed the data from 956 mother-child pairs. Multiple linear or logistic regressions and restricted cubic splines were used to explore the association of maternal whole blood selenium levels with offspring cardiac structure.

RESULTS

Low maternal selenium levels were associated with increased left ventricular posterior wall thickness at systole [β = 0.29, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.06, 0.53], left ventricular posterior wall thickness at diastole (LVPWd) (β = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.31), and relative wall thickness (RWT) (β = 0.011, 95% CI: 0.003, 0.019) in male offspring. Moreover, maternal selenium showed a U-shape curve with left ventricular mass index (P for nonlinearity = 0.002), LVPWd (P for nonlinearity = 0.035), interventricular septal thickness at systole (P for nonlinearity = 0.006), and RWT (P for nonlinearity = 0.013) in male offspring. However, no significant association of structural changes was found in female offspring. Compared with offspring with medium maternal selenium levels, the increased risk of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (odds ratio = 4.14; 95% CI: 1.81, 9.45) was only found in male offspring with lower maternal selenium levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Low maternal selenium levels were associated with cardiac structural changes and higher LVH risk in preschool male offspring, whereas no correlation was found in female offspring.