[Body proportions in a group of Brazilian patients with Turner Syndrome]

Abstract

Objective: The first Brazilian study aimed to evaluate body proportions in patients with Turner Syndrome (TS) with no growth hormone treatment.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with 50 TS patients (5 to 43 years) evaluating age, karyotype, pubertal development, height, sitting height, arm span, weight, BMI, head circumference, length of hand, foot and leg, waist to hip ratio, biacromial and biiliac diameters. The data were transformed in score z. A descriptive analysis was done and Mann-Whitney test and analysis of variance was applied.

Results: Twenty-eight patients were pubertal and 22 nonpubertal, and all of the absolute measurements were significantly increased in the former. There were no significant differences of the anthropometric findings according to the karyotype and puberty, in relation to score z data. The SD scores of all variables showed means above -2, except height and arm span in the nonpubertal patients and also sitting height and hand in the pubertal patients. The same result was observed when only the patients > 20 years were analyzed, being only weight, BMI, and biacromial and biiliac diameters significantly smaller in relation to the Danish data of Gravholt and Naeera from 1997.

Conclusion: The retardation of growth in TS occurs mainly on the longitudinal axis, and the results showed in this study are similar to the Danish report.