Dwarfism
The shortest of the children, or when the annual growth height is less than 5 cm, should consider that the child may have a growth disorder. Signs of slow growth There is a pattern of growth in children, with the fastest growth rate during puberty. After puberty, the bones mature and the epiphysis closes, the height stops growing, and no more methods can make the child continue to grow taller. As the best time to treat the child is missed, many parents have to regret for life. This requires parents to pay close attention to their children’s growth and to detect signs of slow growth in time.
Growth rate of children is less than 7 cm/year until the age of 3 years.
Less than 5 cm/year from the age of 3 to puberty
Less than 6 cm/year during puberty.
When a child does not grow, the first reaction of many parents is that the nutrition has not kept up, or the influence of the folk often said “late growth”, that the child is just late development. In fact, this is a very common misconception. Children with short stature may be threatened by growth disorders.
Causes
1. Lack of growth hormone or insufficient secretion of growth hormone, resulting in normal height growth (usually referred to as dwarfism), without growth hormone replacement therapy, the final height can only reach about 130 cm.
2. Children with precocious puberty are usually short in stature.
3. 1/3 of children with intrauterine growth retardation are short in stature in adulthood.
4.Low thyroid function.
5. familial short stature.
6. Other diseases, such as congenital ovarian hypoplasia, certain metabolic diseases (such as congenital chondrodysplasia, renal tubular acidosis, etc.) and certain chronic diseases and malnutrition, etc.
In addition to family inheritance, most cases of dwarfism are caused by diseases, especially those caused by endocrine diseases, which account for more than 50% of clinical dwarfism patients, the most common of which is pituitary growth hormone secretion disorder. Growth hormone is the most important hormone that promotes the growth of bones and organs after birth, and its deficiency will directly affect the growth and development of children.
Treatment
Symptomatic treatment – growth hormone injections
What conditions can be treated with growth hormone (rhGH) for dwarfism?
With the accumulation of experience in the clinical application of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), the number of conditions approved for treatment with rhGH is gradually increasing.
1.Growth hormone deficiency: In 1985, the US FDA approved rhGH for the treatment of growth hormone deficiency, which is the indication with the best effect of applying growth hormone. Clinical applications at home and abroad for many years have shown that genetic recombinant human growth hormone can make these children with dwarfism generally grow 10-12cm per year.
2.Idiopathic dwarfism (ISS): In 2003, the U.S. FDA approved the application of growth hormone treatment for idiopathic dwarfism (familial dwarfism) to improve the final height of patients, and the application of growth hormone to such children has achieved more satisfactory results.
3. Short stature caused by congenital ovarian dysplasia (Turner’s syndrome), chronic renal insufficiency and intrauterine growth retardation have also been recognized as indications for growth hormone treatment.
4. Familial dwarfism, delayed height development caused by precocious puberty, and chondrodysplasia are also effective when treated with growth hormone.