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[Etiology of growth retardation (failure to thrive)]
Insights
Failure to thrive (FTT) in children has diverse causes, with organic factors like intrauterine retardation and gastrointestinal issues being significant. Genetic and neurological conditions lead to more severe, persistent developmental impairments in FTT patients.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Biology
- Medical Genetics
Context:
- Failure to thrive (FTT) is a common pediatric concern requiring etiological classification.
- Understanding growth and developmental characteristics aids in categorizing FTT causes.
- 174 hospitalized FTT patients were analyzed to differentiate etiological factors.
Purpose:
- To identify distinct growth and development characteristics associated with various etiologies of failure to thrive (FTT).
- To compare the outcomes of children with organic versus non-organic causes of FTT.
- To investigate the long-term impact of genetic and neurological conditions on FTT patients.
Summary:
- FTT etiology was categorized into "organic and psychosocial" (48%) and "non-organic" (52%) causes.
- Predominant organic factors included intrauterine retardation (41%) and gastrointestinal pathology (24%).
- Children with genetic and neurological diseases exhibited significantly greater stunting and wasting compared to the non-organic group (p < 0.05).
Impact:
- Genetic and neurological FTT categories showed persistent lower anthropometric values post-discharge (p < 0.05).
- Psychomotor retardation was more prevalent and less responsive to treatment in genetic and neurological FTT categories.
- While motor deficits were most pronounced at admission across all FTT categories, they demonstrated the highest recovery rates.
Abstract:
To determinate the different characteristics of growth and development that could categorize the etiology of failure to thrive (FTT), we analyzed 174 patients hospitalized because of FTT. Forty-eight percent had "organic and psychosocial" causes, and fifty-two percent had "non- organic" causes. The predominant organic factors were intrauterine retardation (41%) and gastrointestinal pathology (24%). Children with genetic and neurologic diseases were significantly more stunted and wasted than those of the "non-organic category (p less than 0.05). At discharge, the anthropometric data of the patients with genetic pathology remained with lower values than the ones observed in the other categories (p less than 0.05). The genetic and neurologic categories had the higher percentages of psychomotor retardation, and this impairment didn't improve after treatment. In all the categories, the motor areas were most retarded at the time of admission; nevertheless, they showed the higher percentage of recovery.