Extremely Short Stature: Influence of Each Parent’s Height on Clinical-Biological Features

Abstract

Idiopathic extremely short stature probably has several causes. Objective: To evaluate the influence of each parent’s height on clinical-biological features. Methods: 57 patients without intrauterine growth retardation seen at 7.9 ± 0.4 years for height ≤–3 SD were classified according to the difference between their target height and actual height: <2 SD in familial short stature (FSS, n = 28) and >2 SD in non-FSS (n = 29). Results: Height decreased from –0.5 ± 0.1 SD at birth to –2 ± 0.2 SD at 1 year and –2.7 ± 0.1 SD at 3 years, but the changes in the two groups were similar. FSS children were shorter than non-FSS children both at birth (p = 0.03) and as adults after growth hormone (GH) treatment (p < 0.05), but their plasma insulin-like growth factor I concentrations and GH peaks were similar. The FSS children fathers’ heights were more frequently below –2 SD (64%) than the mothers’ heights (35%) and were correlated with height at first evaluation (p < 0.05). For the whole population, the mothers’ heights were correlated with birth weight (p < 0.05) and with height at first evaluation (p < 0.03). Conclusion: This study confirms the influence of the mother’s height on birth weight and shows how of the father’s height influences idiopathic extremely short stature.

Growth and Predictors of Growth Restraint in Moderately Preterm Children Aged 0 to 4 Years

“…Small maternal height is a wellknown risk factor for poor height gain in a normal population. 21 This obviously also holds true for moderately preterm-born children. It was surprising that we found that in moderately preterm-born children short lengths of mothers were also associated with poor weight gain, albeit less strongly so than poor height attainment.…”

“…Factors in the latter category for the child were GA, SGA, gender, in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection, part of a multiple birth, and breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life, and factors for the mother were height, age, ethnicity, level of education, smoking during pregnancy, and family income. 10,[21][22][23][24] Data from appropriate-for-GA (AGA) children were also analyzed separately to clarify any differences between AGA and SGA children. All analyses were performed with SPSS 16 for Windows (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL).…”

Comparison of methods for final height assessment in adolescents with a normal variant short stature

“…The diagnosis of short stature at the end of growth demonstrates that parental height has a significant effect on this outcome, confirming the similarity of these groups regarding familial inheritance of growth 8,19,[21][22][23] . The two methods of assessment of final height, BayleyPinneau and TW3, did not show good agreement when used to predict final height.…”

Catch-down growth during infancy of children born small (SGA) or appropriate (AGA) for gestational age with short-statured parents

“…35,36 In extremely short children with ISS born AGA (n ϭ 28), there was a higher percentage of short fathers than mothers, and fathers' height SDS was positively correlated with the children's height SDS at first clinical presentation. 21 Other findings point to a maternal factor because extremely short children with familial short stature born SGA showed a positive correlation between target height and maternal height. Unfortunately, there was no clear distinction between the genders.…”