title: What will be the adult height of coeliac patients?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cacciari
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Corazza
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salardi
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pascucci
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tacconi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cicognani
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tassinari
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biasco
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Volta
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lazzari
mesh_terms: 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