Growth charts for non-growth hormone treated Prader-Willi syndrome

Abstract

Objective: The goal of this study was to generate and report standardized growth curves for weight, height, head circumference, and BMI for non-growth hormone-treated white male and female US subjects with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) between 3 and 18 years of age and develop standardized growth charts.

Methods: Anthropometric measures (N = 133) were obtained according to standard methods from 120 non-growth hormone-treated white subjects (63 males and 57 females) with PWS between 3 and 18 years of age. Standardized growth curves were developed for the third, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentiles by using the LMS method for weight, height, head circumference, and BMI for PWS subjects along with the normative third, 50th, and 97th percentiles from national and international growth data. The LMS smoothing procedure summarized the distribution of the anthropometric variables at each age using three parameters: power of the Box-Cox transformation λ (L), median μ (M) and coefficient of variation δ (S).

Results: Weight, height, head circumference, and BMI standardized growth charts representing 7 percentile ranges were developed from 120 non-growth hormone-treated white male and female US subjects with PWS (age range: 3-18 years) and normative third, 50th, and 97th percentiles from national and international data.

Conclusions: We encourage the use of syndrome-specific growth standards to examine and evaluate subjects with PWS when monitoring growth patterns and determining nutritional and obesity status. These variables can be influenced by culture, individual medical care, diet intervention, and physical activity plans.

Keywords: Prader-Willi syndrome; children; genetic subtype; standardized growth charts.

FIGURE 1

Standardized curves for weight of non–growth hormone–treated subjects (male subjects [upper] and female subjects [lower]) with PWS (solid lines) and normative percentile ranges (shaded area) with normative 97th to 50th percentiles in dark shading and 50th to third percentiles in light shading.

FIGURE 2

Standardized curves for height of non–growth hormone–treated subjects (male subjects [upper] and female subjects [lower]) with PWS (solid lines) and normative percentile ranges (shaded area) with normative 97th to 50th percentiles in dark shading and 50th to third percentiles in light shading.

FIGURE 3

Standardized curves for head circumference of non–growth hormone–treated subjects (male subjects [upper] and female subjects [lower]) with PWS (solid lines) and normative percentile ranges (shaded area) with normative 97th to 50th percentiles in dark shading and 50th to third percentiles in light shading.

FIGURE 4

Standardized curves for BMI weight of non–growth–hormone treated subjects (male subjects [upper] and female subjects [lower]) with PWS (solid lines) and normative percentile ranges (shaded area) with normative 97th to 50th percentiles in dark shading and 50th to third percentiles in light shading.