This medical journal reports the results of investigations in corticosteroid dosage and height growth, corticosteroid therapy and the relation of height growth and skeletal maturation and the course of catch-up growth of height and skeletal maturity after discontinuing corticosteroid treatment.
Daily administration of corticosteroid to children may influence the height as well as skeletal maturation. Severity of asthmatic symtomps and the failure to relieve them other than steroids formed the principal indication for treatment with steroids. Steroid therapy was always combined with bronchodilator drugs and, if necessary, with antibiotics, and with physical and psycological therapy.The analysis of the experiment consist of those children who had been treated daily with prednisolon for at least 6 months. And the result of this experiment described that in the children treated with prednisolon, skeletal maturation is retarded with respect to height growth.
It is possible that the dose prescribed was not always the same as the quantity actually taken. However, the correlation encounterd between the height growth and the dosage prescribed justifies the conjencture that the patients usually followed the dosage regimen and this is supported by the fact that the children included in the investigation attended with their parents concientiously.
The experts in this experiment consider that corticosteroid are the main cause of growth impairment. Asthmatic symptom may be partly responsible too, but it is tiny, because they observed no difference between the growth pattern during symptom-free and non-symptom-free phases. And also, it s possible that a given dosage of prednisolon may impair growth more in prepubertal than in pubertal children. The relation between the degree of growth impairment and the dosage of prednisolone in prepubertal children shows that the risk of growth impairment is small when the dosage is below the equivalent amount of hydrocortisone produced by the adrenal. Another sign of sexual maturation are closely correlated with bone age. Retardation of skeletal maturation in the course of steroid therapy probably does not involve retardation of puberty. And it seems, sexual maturation does not do so.
As summary, In prepubertal children the risk of growth impairment is small if the daily prednisolone dosage is less than 3 mg/sq. m. If more than that the risk of growth impairment is great. Skeletal maturation tends to be retarded more than height during steroid treatment. Cath-up growth after discontinuing treatment is slow and variable.
The author of this medical jounal were :
K. F. Kerrebijn and J. P. de Kroon with the assistance of H. J. Post and E. L Huijser from Queen Juliana Children Hospital, and Mathematical Centre TNO, The Haque, Netherland. You can read a detailed reports in this PDF Format which consist of 6 pages all. Thank You.
