Introduction:Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk trajectory begins in early childhood and can be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) is considered the gold standard for assessing CVD risk trajectory; however, there are no normative cfPWV data in children. Further, while cfPWV may be suitable for use in children, it is challenging in neonates. Brachial-femoral PWV (bfPWV), a less obtrusive measurement, may be an alternative method given the similar contours of carotid and brachial waveforms at this age. Our purpose was to: (a) use meta-regression to determine the normal rate of cfPWV progression in children, and (b) determine the feasibility of assessing bfPWV using an oscillometric technique in neonates.Hypothesis:We hypothesized that (a) cfPWV will increase with age, starting at birth, and (b) mean bfPWV values from neonates will overlap with the intercept (year 0) from the normative data generated from the meta-regression.Methods:Electronic databases were searched from inception to May 2018 for all studies in English that reported cfPWV in children (<19 y) with at least 100 participants. Random effects meta-regression was used to quantify the association between time/age (years) and cfPWV. We measured bfPWV in 5 neonates (1-2 days old; mean weight 3.65 kg [SD: 0.52 kg]) using oscillometric cuffs, attached to the upper right arm and thigh, via the VICORDER®.Results:We identified 9 studies for the meta-regression (3 longitudinal and 6 cross-sectional). The age of the participants ranged from 14.5 – 15.1 y in longitudinal studies, with a 2-5 y follow-up. The age range across the cross-sectional studies was 6-18 y. From the meta-regression, the increase in cfPWV per year (age) was 0.12 (95% CI: 0.07, 0.16) m/s. The cfPWV intercept (0 y) was 3.61 (95% CI: 3.07, 4.16) m/s. We successfully obtained acceptable quality bfPWV measurements on all neonates, with a mean bfPWV of 3.64 (95% CI: 3.31, 3.97) m/s.Conclusion:In children <19 years old, cfPWV increases at a rate of 0.12 m/s per year. As hypothesized, mean values of bfPWV from the neonates overlap with the intercept from the meta-regression analysis. Evaluating bfPWV using an oscillometric technique is feasible and yields comparable results to published cfPWV data in children.