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Document Type

Article

Abstract

An anthropometric study was performed on 40 Caucasian chil­dren with familial short stature (FSS) and compared with 40 age-, race-, and sex-matched children with normal stature and 958 adolescent boys and girls with normal stature. Anthropometric measurements were also obtained on 30 short parents of the FSS children and compared with 26 normal stature parents of the FSS children and 33 normal height unrelated adults. The FSS children were found to have a high prevalence of brachymetacarpia V, rhizomelia, and disproportionate limb shortening as compared to the con­trol groups. Brachymetacarpia V and rhizomelia were also more prevalent among the short parents as compared to the adults with normal stature.Short limbs also appeared to be more prevalent in the short parents as compared to the other two adult groups. The concomitant presence of more than one type of tubular bone alteration was more commonly seen in the groups with short stature as compared to the control groups. The results of this study support the major role played by endochrondral growth in deter­mining stature by expressing itself not only in over-all height but also in disproportionate shortening of tubular bones.

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