Neonatal corticosteroid therapy affects growth patterns in early infancy

Although postnatal corticosteroid (CS) therapy has well established beneficial effects on pulmonary function, it may also result in growth restriction during treatment. The course of early childhood growth is believed to predict cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adulthood. Therefore, we determined the effects of postnatal dexamethasone (DEX) or hydrocortisone (HC) treatment on patterns of postnatal growth until approximately four years of age.

In an observational cohort study of children born prematurely (<32 weeks of gestation), we compared growth patterns for body weight, height, and head circumference from birth to age four years, of children who received DEX (boys: N = 30, girls: N = 14), HC (boys: N = 33, girls: N = 28) to a reference group that had not received postnatal CSs (boys: N = 52, girls: N = 53) using linear mixed-effects modeling.

Growth velocity curves of CS-treated neonates showed a shift to the right, representing a delay in time. They had decreased absolute growth velocities during and shortly after treatment, followed by an increase in growth velocity thereafter. A shift to the right was also seen for the age at which maximal growth velocity of weight/height was reached in boys and girls. Fractional growth rates of weight, height, and head circumference were generally reduced in the CS-treated groups during the first two months of age, with catch-up growth in the following months. In DEX-treated infants these changes were more pronounced than in HC-treated infants.

These data suggest that postnatal growth patterns of preterm born infants are affected by CS-treatment, more by DEX than by HC. Effects were observed mainly on growth velocities. This observation may have impact on health in later life for those individuals treated with CSs in the neonatal period. A definitive conclusion would require a randomized trial of these therapies.