SPONTANEOUS GROWTH IN CHINESE PATIENTS WITH TURNERS-SYNDROME AND INFLUENCE OF KARYOTYPE

The pretreatment mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal height measure ments of 203 patients with Turner's syndrome (TS) were analysed. Only one observation was included per year per child and a total of 858 obs ervations formed the basis of the growth study. The mean and SD values were fitted separately by a second-degree polynomial function, giving smoothed growth curves. The spontaneous growth pattern of Chinese gir ls with TS runs parallel to published Caucasian TS growth curves. The mean final height of Chinese patients with TS was 142 cm compared to 1 47 cm and 139 cm observed in Northern European and Japanese patients, respectively. Patients with the 46,X,i(Xq) karyotype were found to be significantly shorter, whereas children with the 45,X/46,XY and 46,X,d el(Xq) karyotypes were significantly taller among this group of patien ts. Patients with TS who were disomic for Xp are significantly taller than patients who were monosomic for Xp. Our results suggest that kary otype can have a significant effect on the growth of children with TS.