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Predicting the adult height of short children

BMJ 1994; 308 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.308.6938.1207 (Published 07 May 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;308:1207
  1. B L Heitmann,
  2. T I A Sorensen,
  3. N Keiding,
  4. N E Skakkebaek
  1. Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen Health Services, Copenhagen Municipal Hospital, DK-1399 Copenhagen K
  2. Denmark Statistical Research Unit, University of Copenhagen, DK-2200 Copenhagen N
  3. Denmark Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, University Hospital, DK-2100 Copenhagen,Denmark
  1. Correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr Heitmann.
  • Accepted 17 December 1993

Some recent studies have suggested that treatment with growth hormones can stimulate growth in very short children who do not have growth hormone insufficiency,1but others suggest that growth hormone treatment may modulate normal puberty and shorten the pubertal growth spurt.2It is not known whether growth hormone treatment in children with short stature will make them taller than if they had not been treated. Most of the ongoing research uses changes in standard deviation scores of height before and after treatment as the measure of effect.1,3 Evidence supporting the common assumption that children who are short before puberty will also be short in adulthood is lacking. The present study therefore sought to describe the adult …

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