Standards for growth and growth velocity in Turner's syndrome

Turner-specific natural growth and growth velocity curves based on the retrospectively surveyed growth data of 704 Japanese patients in a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal mode are reported. There was no significant difference in growth between the patients with karyotype 45,X and non-45,X. Twenty-three patients had a history of genital bleeding between the ages of 11 and 14 years (12 years +/- 9 months). The mean height of the patients with genital bleeding did not differ significantly from that without bleeding from birth until 1 year 3 months of age but thereafter the former were always significantly taller than the latter. The former ceased growing after 18 years; on the other hand the latter were still growing after 18 years and then the final height of each group of patients became almost the same (139.6 +/- 3.5 cm in the former and 139.1 +/- 5.6 cm in the latter). A slight and gentle growth spurt was observed during the expected adolescent period in both groups, with and without genital bleeding. However, the mean height of peak (1.3 +/- 0.95 cm/year) and the mean peak velocity (5.2 +/- 1.1 cm/year) in the patients with genital bleeding were significantly higher than those (0.7 +/- 0.36 and 3.8 +/- 0.6 cm/year, respectively) in the patients without genital bleeding.