BSPED2012 Poster Presentations (1) (66 abstracts)
Feasibility of measuring birth length and parental height for small babies and following-up short children at 2 years
Colette Montgomery Sardar 1 , Sheena Kinmond 2 , Jamila Siddique 2 , Sheena McGowan 1 , Wendy Paterson 1 , Sharon Donnelly 2 , Emma Jane Gault 1 & Malcolm Donaldson 1
1University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK; 2Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, UK.
Background: Small for gestational age (SGA) and short stature at birth can be defined as birth weight (BW) and birth length (BL) ≤−2 S.D.. Affected neonates can be classified as: i) SGA, ii) Short, iii) SGA + Short. Catch-up growth occurs by age 6 months in 90–95% of Short and SGA + Short infants. A minority remain short after age 2–4 years when the lack of data on BL and parental height (PH) renders assessment difficult.
Aims: To determine the feasibility of: measuring BL and obtaining PH for infants with BW≤9th centile; re-measuring Short and SGA + Short children at 2 years.
Method: Hearing Screening Assistants in a single maternity unit were trained to measure BL and PH for infants with BW ≤9th centile between July 2008 and June 2009. Short and SGA + Short babies were invited for re-measurement at 2 years.
Results: BW was recorded in 3797/3798 liveborn infants. BW was ≤9th centile in 487 (12.8%) of whom BL was recorded in 347 (71%), mother’s height in 115 (24%) and father’s height in 104 (21%). Fifty-one infants were Short (1.3% total population) and 61 were SGA + Short (1.6%). At 2-year follow-up, 60/112 (54%) (27 Short, 33 SGA + Short) infants attended: 5 were Short, 3 were Light (not Short), and 1 (with a known underlying medical condition) was Short + Light. Catch-up growth did not occur in 6/60 (10%) infants. Four were identified as requiring further investigation.
Conclusions: The prevalence of short stature at birth (2.9%) was not elevated in our cohort, however 12.8% had BW <9th centile and 10% of Short infants remained Short at 2 years. Measuring BL in babies <9th centile is feasible and desirable. Measuring PH at birth and re-assessing Short children at 2 years is useful but requires greater effort.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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