Most children with short stature are healthy.
Short stature is defined as height that is more than two standard deviations below the mean for age, sex and population.
23 per 1000 individuals have this diagnosis.
Most children’s adult height will fall within 10cm of their target height.
Children who grow at anormal rate are more likely to represent the normal variation of growth while a poor growth rate may indicate the presence of an organic process.
Most children stay at approximately the same percentile when height is plotted on a growth chart.
There is normal variation in growth rate especially in infancy and adolescence.
Longitudinal growth charts show variations in patterns of growth based on pubertal maturation.
Prenatal causes include: undernutrition and intrinsic fetal disorders.
Postnatal causes include: familial delayed maturation, familial short stature, undernutrition, genetic abnormalities affecting bone and cartilage growth, chronic illness, glucocorticoids and attention deficit medications, and endocrine disorders such associated hypothyroidism, hypopituitarism and cortisol excess.
Celiac disease in children with short stature ranges from 2-8%.
Growth hormone testing does not clearly distinguish isolated GH deficiency from idiopathic short stature.
Treatment with recombinant human growth increases the adult height of children with idiopathic short stature by 1.2-2.8 inches with wide variation.
Human GH proved for children with idiopathic short stature and weight below the 1st percentile.
Tall stature is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, but higher risk of many cancers hip fractures in pulmonary emboli.