Letter by Phillips and O'Leary regarding article, "systemic and pulmonary vascular dysfunction in children conceived by assisted reproductive technologies".

I read with interest the article by Scherrer et al. This research was largely advertised in a Swiss television show, 36.9, on April 4, 2012. In this show, it was clearly evident that children conceived by assisted reproduction techniques were informed of the hypothesis of the study before the measurements, that they were at risk to be victims of heart infarction at a very young age, and that their vascular system and pulmonary pressure might be a problem. In my opinion, the authors should consider the possibility that informing the children and their parents might have confounded the results. For example, this action might have induced emotional stress that altered vascular function. I thank the authors for their interest in this clinically important topic. Two to 5% of children are born after assisted reproduction techniques in developed countries. As a randomized trial to avoid biases is obviously not conceivable, future research to eventually confirm these results will be important for the children born after assisted reproduction techniques and their families.