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Published on: October 12, 2018
Final height in patients perinatally infected with the human immunodeficiency virus
1Department of Paediatrics, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy. stefano.stagi@yahoo.it
Insights
Children with perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection often have reduced final height compared to their target height. Accumulated growth deficits during childhood and adolescence may contribute to this reduced final height in HIV-infected individuals.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Endocrinology
Background:
- Final height data are lacking for children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
- Understanding growth patterns in HIV-infected children is crucial for clinical management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate auxological data up to final height in a cohort of perinatally HIV-infected children.
- To determine factors influencing final height in this population.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of auxological data in 95 Caucasian patients (median age 17.5 years) with perinatal HIV infection.
- Evaluation of prepubertal height (PrH), height velocity (HV), final height (FH), target height (TH), and predicted adult height (PAH) as standard deviation (SD) scores.
Main Results:
- Patients exhibited significantly reduced PrH and FH compared to their TH (p < 0.001).
- Age at puberty onset correlated negatively with PrH (p = 0.002) and CD4+ cell percentage (p < 0.01).
- Height velocity (HV) correlated significantly with viremia (p = 0.001) but not CD4+ cell percentage.
Conclusions:
- Perinatally HIV-infected patients achieve a final height significantly reduced and not aligned with their target height.
- Growth deficits accumulated during childhood and adolescence appear to contribute to reduced final height in HIV-infected children.
Introduction:
Data concerning final height are completely lacking in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children.
Design:
Retrospective evaluation of auxological data up to final height in a cohort of patients with perinatal HIV infection.
Patients And Methods:
In 95 Caucasian patients (57 females and 38 males, median age 17.5 years) the following data were evaluated as standard deviation (SD) score: prepubertal height (PrH), height velocity (HV), final height (FH), target height (TH), FH minus PrH, predicted adult height (PAH), FH minus PAH, and FH minus TH.
Results:
Patients showed a significantly reduced PrH and FH compared to their TH (p < 0.001), even if no difference was evidenced between PrH and FH. Age at puberty onset displayed a negative significant correlation with PrH (p = 0.002) and CD4+ cell percentage (p < 0.01). Finally, HV displayed a significant correlation with viremia (p = 0.001), but not with CD4+ cell percentage.
Conclusions:
HIV perinatally infected patients show a FH significantly reduced and not in accordance with TH. Our data seem to suggest that the losses in stature accumulated throughout the total period of childhood and adolescence may contribute to their reduced FH.
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