Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 17-22 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Hormone Research |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2004 |
Keywords
- β-thalassemia
- Growth, pubertal
- Hypogonadism
- Puberty
- Short stature
