Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2010) 21 P230

SFEBES2009 Poster Presentations Growth and development (8 abstracts)

The impact of IBD on pubertal growth is most marked in boys with Crohn's disease

Avril Mason 1 , Paraic McGrogan 2 , Richard Russell 2 , Jonathan Bishop 2 , Salma Malik 1 & Faisal Ahmed 1


1Bone and Endocrine Research Group, Royal Hospital for Sick Children Glasgow, Glasgow, UK; 2Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Royal Hospital for Sick Children Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.


Background: Whilst puberty is understood to be commonly effected in adolescents with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), the extent of this effect as well as related problems with growth have rarely been quantified.

Objective: To determine the impact of CD and UC on Size, Tempo and Velocity of the growth spurt.

Methods: Retrospective study of 142 children with IBD (case notes available, 68) who fulfilled the criteria for describing growth spurt parameters (48). Twelve children who had been treated with growth promoting agents (8 CDM, 2 CDF and 2 UCM) and four children who had coexisting conditions, which may impact on growth were excluded. The remaining groups CDM (11); CDF (8); UCM (5) and UCF (8) had median age at diagnosis of 13.2, 11.9, 11.7 and 11.0 years respectively.

Height at diagnosis (HAD) and height at peak height velocity (HPHV), converted to SDS, defined Size; age at PHV (APHV) defined Tempo; and PHV, converted to SDS adjusted for pubertal stage, defined velocity of the growth spurt. The median interval between height measurements was 0.4 years. Results expressed as median (range).

GroupHAD SDSHPHV SDSAPHV (years)PHV SDS
CDM−0.93 (−2.12; 0.84)−0.36 (−2.25; 0.78)14.4 (12.7; 16.3)1.95 (−4.18; 4.73)
CDF−1.17 (−1.95; 0.40)−1.07 (−1.70; 0.66)12.4 (10.3; 13.8)1.1 (−1.4; 6.8)
UCM−0.18 (−1.18; 1.37)−0.13 (−1.31; 1.53)14.2 (13.3; 15.4)1.64 (0.27; 9.6)
UCF−0.71 (−1.32; 1.18)−0.05 (−1.83; 0.99)12.1 (10.1; 14.0)0.75 (−0.8; 10.2)

Results: There was no statistical difference between groups for each of the parameters. However 6/11 in CDM had 1 parameter effected: 1 subject had HADSDS <−2, 1 subject had HPHVSDS <−2, 2 subjects had an APHV >2 years above population mean, and 2 subjects had a PHVSDS <−2. There was no correlation between PHV and either HPHV or APHV in analysis of the whole group (r, −0.29, P=0.11 and r, 0.16, P=0.40) or in subgroup analysis.

Conclusion: As a group, disorders of the pubertal growth spurt are more likely to occur in boys with Crohn’s disease.

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