Cohort Profile: The Youth Vascular Consortium

Abstract

Background Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, yet its origins lie in early life. Cardiovascular risk factors track from childhood into adulthood, and vascular abnormalities detected in youth predict future cardiovascular outcomes. Despite compelling evidence, vascular assessment in youth has been impeded by a lack of reference values, standardised measurement protocols, and consensus on distinguishing physiological from pathological vascular ageing. The Youth Vascular Consortium (YVC) was established in 2020 to address these gaps through international collaboration between leading experts in the field. Results The YVC comprises 33 research centers from 27 countries across five continents, including 29,704 participants aged 2 to 40 years. All centers assessed at least one validated vascular measure including pulse wave velocity, central blood pressure, augmentation index, intima-media thickness, carotid distensibility, or flow-mediated dilatation. The YVC has generated major outputs advancing vascular health assessment in youth, including international expert consensus on standardised definitions of early vascular ageing from birth through young adulthood and evidence-based recommendations for vascular assessment protocols. In addition, device-specific reference values for pulse wave velocity were established with age and sex specific percentile curves, enabling identification of youth with elevated arterial stiffness. Conclusions The YVC provides an international platform for investigating vascular health from early life. Harmonising diverse datasets and establishing evidence-based standards, the Consortium aims to improve the vascular health of children and young people, thereby enabling early identification and targeted prevention strategies when vascular trajectories remain modifiable, ultimately reducing the global cardiovascular disease burden across the lifespan.