Paediatric Growth and Endocrine Flashcards
What is ‘normal’ growth?
•Precise definition difficult:
- Wide range within healthy population
- Different ethnic subgroups
- Inequality in basic health and nutrition
- Normality may relate to individuals or populations (genetic influence)
how should height be measured?
essential to have good measurements, good technique and equipment
when should you take measurements of a child?
Value of serial measurements: ‘make every contact count’
important to have many measurements, should be measured at every contact
how can you predict a child height?
Target Height and Mid Parental Height (MPH)
short parents make short children
what is bone age?
left has delayed bone age and right has very advanced bone age
A bone age study helps doctors estimate the maturity of a child’s skeletalsystem. It’s usually done by taking a single X-ray of the left wrist, hand, and fingers
assessment of bone maturation, x-ray of the left hand, analyse maturity of 20 bones
if someone is short with a delayed bone age this may mean they still have the potential to grow as they have a young skeleton
Basics are so important!! - what may unaccurate measurements lead to?
may put child through unnecessary investigations
Summary: Assessment Tools
- Height/ length/ weight
- Growth Charts and plotting
- MPH and Target centiles
- Growth velocity
- Bone age
- Pubertal assessment
want to get more information
History and further examination - what would you do?
- Birth weight and gestation
- PMH
- Family history/social history/schooling
- Systematic enquiry
- Dysmorphic features
- Systemic examination including pubertal assessment
Growth disorders: what are indications for referral?
- Extreme short or tall stature (off centiles)
- Height below target height
- Abnormal height velocity (crossing centiles)
- History of chronic disease
- Obvious dysmorphic syndrome
- Early/late puberty
what are some common causes for short stature?
- Familial - short child from a short family
- Constitutional - Constitutional delay of growth and puberty - variant of normal, will be late developers, will be fine
- SGA/IUGR
Variations of normal
what investigations can be done and what do they look for?
what is used to assess where children are in puberty and how is it done?
Staging of puberty: Tanner method
what are the stages?
stage 2 is beginning of puberty, stage 1 means haven’t started
what hormones are involved in puberty?
these hormones cause breast development in girls and testicular enlargement in boys, also get pubic hair and axillary hair but these are mediated by adrenal hormones and these are produced around when children go into puberty and they produce secondary sexual characteristics in boys and girls (pubic and axillary hair)
Relationship between growth and other changes in puberty: how ar ebyos and girls different?
tempo of puberty different between boys and girls, menarche is a late development, boys start puberty on average a year later and have a later growth spurt that is more marked
what is classed as early and delayed puberty in boys and girls?
•Boys
- early < 9 years (rare)
- delayed >14 (common, especially CDGP)
•Girl
- early <8 years
- delayed >13 (rare)