Pucci G, Bisogni V, Battista F, et al. - By analyzing 387 healthy adolescents (mean age 17.1±1.4 years), researchers examined the burden of Ideal Cardiovascular Health (ICH; defined as optimal levels of cardiovascular (CV) health factors and behaviors) as well as its link with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) among these Italian adolescents. Experts assigned a score of 2 for ideal levels, 1 for intermediate, and 0 for poor, for each ICH metric. At least one ICH metric was exhibited by all participants, whereas none demonstrated all ICH 7 metrics. The average number of ICH metrics was 4.3±1.1. Findings revealed that Italian adolescents relatively uncommonly had ICH and there was an inverse association of ICH with cf-PWV among participants. A detrimental link was found between CV unhealthy factors and behaviors with elevated aortic stiffness, which started developing at an early stage of the lifespan.