Douthit MK, et al. – The impact of phylloquinone (vitamin K–1) intake on left ventricular (LV) structure and function in adolescents, was assessed in this current study. Findings demonstrated that most favorable subclinical cardiac structure and function variables were reported in adolescents in association with consumption of higher phylloquinone.

Methods

• Researchers evaluated diet with three to seven 24-h recalls and physical activity (PA) by accelerometry in 766 adolescents (aged 14–18 y, 50% female, 49% black).
• They measured fat-free soft tissue (FFST) mass and fat mass by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
• They also assessed LV structure [LV mass (g)/height (m)2.7 (LV mass index) and relative wall thickness] and function [midwall fractional shortening (MFS) and ejection fraction] by echocardiography.
• They assessed links by comparing the LV structure and function variables across tertiles of phylloquinone intake.
• Furthermore, prevalence and OR of LV hypertrophy (LV mass index >95th percentile for age and sex) were assessed by phylloquinone tertiles.

Results

• Findings demonstrated that the prevalence of LV hypertrophy progressively decreased across tertiles of phylloquinone intake (P-trend < 0.01).
• Researchers observed that multinomial logistic regression—adjusting for age, sex, race, Tanner stage, systolic blood pressure, FFST mass, fat mass, socioeconomic status, PA, and intakes of energy, fiber, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin D, and sodium—revealed that compared with the highest phylloquinone intake tertile (reference group), the adjusted OR for LV hypertrophy was 3.3 (95% CI: 1.2, 7.4) for those in the lowest phylloquinone intake tertile.
• They also noted that when LV structure variables were compared across phylloquinone intake tertiles adjusting for the same covariates, there were significant linear downward trends for LV mass index (6.5% difference, tertile 1 compared with tertile 3) and relative wall thickness (9.2% difference, tertile 1 compared with tertile 3; both P-trend ≤ 0.02).
• Conversely, data reported that significant linear upward trends across phylloquinone intake tertiles were observed for MFS (3.4% difference, tertile 1 compared with tertile 3) and ejection fraction (2.6% difference, tertile 1 compared with tertile 3; both P-trend < 0.04).