title: Stepwise evaluation of the short child. With comments on the status of growth hormone therapy.
abstract: The role of the primary care physician in evaluating short children is to select those children with true growth failure by careful documentation of height measurements. A directed history and physical examination and limited laboratory testing should identify children with nutritional, structural, or inflammatory causes of poor growth and suggest specific therapy. In those few children with growth hormone deficiency, more complicated and expensive testing and therapy are necessary.
mesh_terms: D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005080:Exercise Test; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000172:deficiency; D013007:Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D013006:Growth Hormone; D013007:Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone