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People who were born prematurely may have weaker hearts that recover less well after exercise, a study has found. This may help explain the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease among prematurely born individuals.

鈥淭he most likely explanation is the disruption to normal development, as pre-term birth occurs under a key developmental window for the heart and vascular system that would normally occur inside the womb during the third trimester,鈥� says Adam Lewandowski at the University of Oxford.

He and his team studied 47 adults aged 18 to 40 who were born moderately prematurely 鈥� at between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, the period in which 84 per cent of prematurely born babies are delivered 鈥� and 54 who were born at term, approximately 40 weeks.

They measured the participants鈥� heart and lung function before, during and after intense exercise on a cycling machine. Peak oxygen uptake during exercise 鈥� a key indicator of heart and lung capacity 鈥� was decreased by 16 per cent on average in the pre-term individuals, compared with those who were born at term.

Two minutes after peak exercise, heart rates had recovered by 19 per cent more in the group of people born at term than the pre-term group.

These two factors, a reduced oxygen uptake and slower heart rate recovery, are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease, says Lewandowski.

This study adds to emerging evidence indicating that pre-term birth leads to long-term vulnerability to heart disease, says Mary Jane Black at Monash University in Australia,

鈥淭his will help to get the message out to clinicians that the hearts of adult individuals [born pre-term] 鈥� even those born only a few weeks early 鈥� are abnormal when compared with the hearts of term-born individuals,鈥� she says.

This study adds to the list of long-term outcomes associated with prematurity, says Sailesh Kotecha at Cardiff University, UK, adding that it will also be important to look at lung function in more detail to tease apart whether these results were due more to lung or to heart impairment.