Growth Impairment In Children Research Articles

Impaired growth in hyperkinetic children receiving pemoline

Decreased longitudinal growth was observed in 24 hyperkinetic children receiving pemoline therapy. Mean height velocity was 3.67 +/- 0.25 cm/year during therapy but 5.35 +/- 0.42 cm/year after treatment had been discontinued (P less than 0.01). There appeared to be an inverse relationship between growth velocity and drug dosage. All patients receiving less than the median dose of 3.72 mg/kg grew 4 cm/year or more, while seven of 12 patients receiving more than this dose grew at a slower rate. Body weight, basal and stimulated growth hormone values, and plasma somatomedin concentrations were not significantly altered by pemoline treatment, suggesting that this drug may have a direct effect on cartilage metabolism.

Growth impairment in children treated for brain tumours.

Growth and growth hormone (GH) secretion were studied in 14 children with brain tumours before radiation and chemotherapy and at various time intervals afterwards. The peak GH response to hypoglycaemia was normal in all patients before radiation. In 6 patients the peak GH response was impaired 1 year after radiation, and in a seventh it was normal at 1 year but impaired 2 years after radiation. In 12 of 13 patients the growth velocity during the first year of chemotherapy was below the 3rd centile, although none of these had an initial standing height below the 3rd centile. Thus it appears that poor growth in such children occurs irrespective of whether radiation-induced GH deficiency develops. The cause of this impaired growth is unknown.