Bone mass in thalassaemic children

Bone growth in thalassaemic children.

“…Some authors (Johnston et al, 1966;Johnston and Roseman, 1967;Lapatsanis et al, 1976) have observed that the cortical width is smaller in thalassaemic children than in controls, but Liakakos (1978) have reported a delay of the bone maturation in thalassaemic children. According to Johnston et al (1966) this may be due to absence of the adolescent growth spurt in thalassaemic children.…”

“…The recent interest in various aspects of growth of thalassaemic children resulted in studies of body growth (Kattamis et al, 1970;Pantelakis et al, 1978) and bone density (Johnston and Roseman, 1967;Lapatsanis et al, 1976;Liakakos et al, 1976). As the individual height is related to the length of the long bones, a reliable index of longitudinal bone growth is the increase in length of the metacarpal bones (Exton-Smith et al, 1969;Ikkos et al, 1972).…”