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General body growth in children with cleft palate and related disorders: Age differences
Author(s) -
Bowers Evelyn J.,
Mayro Rosario F.,
Whitaker Linton A.,
Pasquariello Patrick S.,
Larossa Donato,
Randall Peter
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330750408
Subject(s) - etiology , medicine , ontogeny , physiology , growth hormone , pediatrics , hormone , endocrinology
Clefts of the lip and palate, separately or in combination, are among the most frequent congenital defects seen today. Their etiology is heterogeneous and may include hormonal factors, which suggest the possibility of growth effects. Whether affected children are smaller than others has not been determined. We recently showed that growth status is associated with type of cleft. We hypothesized genetic alterations in metabolic pathways that alter prenatal growth, producing clefts; some of these alterations also alter postnatal growth. Since the levels of growth‐regulating hormones change during ontogeny, we expected age differences in the degree of growth deficit seen. To test this hypothesis, we examine here the cross‐sectional means and distributions of standard deviation (z) scores for height and body mass indices (BMIs) for 144 children with the diagnoses unilateral cleft lip and palate (uCLP) and isolated cleft palate (iCP). We find that alteration in growth status is associated with age group as well as sex and diagnosis.