What will be the adult height of coeliac patients?
We studied three groups of patients with coeliac disease: group 1 = 95 adult patients with gastro-intestinal symptoms diagnosed after reaching adult height, 41 of whom had had symptoms during childhood; group 2 = 23 adult patients with classic coeliac disease treated before or during puberty; group 3 = 11 coeliac children with short stature and no gastro-intestinal symptoms diagnosed and treated before or during puberty. We evaluated the adult height in groups 1 and 2 and the growth during the first years of diet in group 3. Our study leads us to the following conclusions. Dieting leads to a modest increase (on average not more than 3 cm) of the final height of coeliac patients. Subjects with gastro-intestinal symptoms who have been treated before adulthood reach a mean height similar to the normal population and have a slightly better adult height than non-treated subjects. This difference seems to exist only in men and this might be related to puberty evolving more rapidly in women receiving treatment. Subjects without symptoms during childhood reach a normal final height even without treatment. In our patients, early treatment seemed to have no great effect on adult height.
Cacciari
E
E
Department of Paediatrics, University of Bologna, Italy.
Corazza
G R
GR
Salardi
S
S
Pascucci
M G
MG
Tacconi
M
M
Cicognani
A
A
Tassinari
D
D
Biasco
G
G
Volta
U
U
Lazzari
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004064:Digestive System / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology