Endocrine Abstracts

Growth through the pubertal progress is notoriously difficult to track and interpreting abnormal patterns is tricky. Current growth charts are unhelpful. I will present new analyses of understanding of growth patterns and the tempo of pubertal changes and how they all link together. The RCPCH has launched a specialist growth chart in June to help identify and diagnose abnormal growth patterns during puberty. These include growth centiles for extremes of stature and weight, and growth centiles for which the normal range varies according to the phase of puberty for tall, short or light children. I will present he new way of tracking puberty with stage lines which are on these new charts, and will show how they can be used to identify patterns of abnormal pubertal development.