Ameer Ahmad, Khawar Saeed, Fiaz Ahmad, Atta Ullah Mazhar.
Short stature and truncal shortening in iron overloaded non-chelated transfusion dependent thalassemic patients.
Pak Paed J Jan ;34(1):23-7.

Objective: To determine the frequency of short stature and truncal shortening in iron over loaded non chelated transfusion dependent thalassemic patients. Study Design:- Cross Sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in thalassemia center pediatric unit-I at B.V. Hospital Bahawalpur from October to November 2009. Patients and Methods: 50 thalassemic iron over loaded non chelated patients were taken. Then physical growth parameters like standing height, sitting height, subischial leg length were measured and compared with the percentile of height on growth chart provided by national centre for health statistics. Results: Growth retardation was observed in majority of patients of more than 5 years of age, with serum ferritin more than 3000 ng/ml and who had more than 100 blood transfusions due to iron over load. Conclusion: Iron over load is very important risk factor leading to growth retardation in thalassemic patient.

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