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No difference in pubertal growth and final height between treated hypogonadal and non-hypogonadal thalassemic
Manuela Caruso-Nicoletti1, Vincenzo De Sanctis, Giuseppe Raiola
1Department of Pediatrics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. endoped@unict.it
Background:
Many factors can negatively affect growth in thalassemic patients, and hypogonadism has been considered as the main factor responsible for their pubertal growth failure.
Objective:
To evaluate the influence of hypogonadism and its treatment on pubertal growth and final height in thalassemic patients.
Methods:
We compared the growth of 28 hypogonadal thalassemic patients in whom puberty was induced to that of 25 patients in whom puberty occurred spontaneously.
Results:
In both groups of patients we observed reduced peak height velocity (induced puberty: females 4.9 +/- 2.1, males 6.0 +/- 1.8 cm/year; spontaneous puberty: females 6.1 +/- 1.5, males 7.3 +/- 2.1 cm/year) and pubertal height gain (induced puberty: females 11.3 +/- 4.0, males 18.0 +/- 4.5 cm/year; spontaneous puberty: females 15.8 +/- 2.7, males 18.1 +/- 5.3 cm/year) and a short final height (induced puberty: females -1.8 +/- 0.7, males -2.1 +/- 1.0 SDS; spontaneous puberty: females -2.3 +/- 1.0, males -1.9 +/- 1.0 SDS).
Conclusions:
Poor pubertal growth is present in thalassemic patients regardless of hypogonadism. Other factors are responsible for the reduced growth spurt and the final short stature observed in these patients.
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