Abstract 31: Etiology of pathological short stature – A tertiary care centre experience

Background: Short stature is one of the commonest clinical entities encountered by an endocrinologist in day-to-day practice. Only few studies from India have specifically focussed on the etiology of pathological short stature. Aim and Objective: To look for different causes of pathological short stature and to compare this data with other parts in India and worldwide. Results: A retrospective analysis of 222 patients (≤18 years) presenting with pathological short stature over last 5 years was done. The mean age of presentation was 10.98±4.88 years with a height SDS of -3.34±1.03, male to female ratio of 0.85 (102/120). The most common cause of short stature was type-1 Diabetes mellitus (DM) (21.1%) followed by primary hypothyroidism (16.2%), metabolic bone disease (13.5%), multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (11.3%), Turner syndrome (6.3%) and isolated growth hormone deficiency (4.8%). Idiopathic short stature was seen in 8 cases (3.6%). Overall, endocrine causes accounted for 82.9% cases. Commonest age group to present was 10-15 years (38.2%). Conclusion: Endocrinological abnormalities was the most common cause of short stature in our study possibly due to referral bias. Unfortunately, most of the children presented late, thereby limiting the scope of optimal treatment.