When they grow up: The growth of extremely low birth weight (≤1000 gm) infants at adolescence☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
Methods
Adolescents who weighed 1000 gm or less at birth and were in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of San Francisco during a 10-year period between January 1, 1972, and December 31, 1981, were eligible for this study. The subjects had been measured in the follow-up clinic at 3 to 8 months and 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10 years of age as part of our longitudinal study.
Written informed consent was obtained, and height, weight, and head circumference of the adolescents were measured at
Subjects
Of the original cohort of 103 infants who had been measured during childhood, measurements as adolescents were obtained for 32 (24%). Mean birth weight for the whole cohort was 846 ± 113 SD gm, and gestational age was 27.2 ± 1.7 weeks.
Mean birth weight for the adolescents was 818 ± 110 gm, and gestational age was 26.6 ± 1.4 weeks. Twenty (63%) of 32 adolescents evaluated were female. A total of 22 white, 8 black, and 2 Asian adolescents were studied. These characteristics were almost identical
Discussion
Delayed catch-up in growth of very low birth weight and extremely low birth weight infants is not evident in early studies with short durations of follow up.3, 4, 5, 6 Kitchen et al.7 found that even at 8 years of age up to 16% of very low birth weight Australian children were below the 10th percentile for Ht, Wt, and HC. Saigal et al.8 reported from a Canadian regional population that 28% of extremely low birth weight adolescents 12 to 16 years of age were less than the 10th percentile in Ht.
References (8)
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Survival and outcome of infants 501-750 gm: a six-year experience
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Is intensive care justified for infants weighing less than 801 gm at birth?
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Growth to age 3 years among very low-birth-weight sequelae-free survivors of modern neonatal intensive care
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Cited by (46)
Evaluation of isometric force in lower limbs and body composition in preterm infants
2015, Anales de PediatriaThe growth of very-low-birth-weight infants at 5 years old in Taiwan
2014, Pediatrics and NeonatologyCitation Excerpt :Among the long-term complications linked to prematurity, the growth pattern of VLBW infants has been of great concern to parents and medical professionals alike because growth after discharge is a good measure of physical, neurologic, and environmental well-being.1 Although “catch-up” growth has been reported, large-sample studies have revealed the persistence of poor growth among VLBW from birth through adolescence.3,4 In addition, it has been estimated that approximately half of VLBW infants develop cognitive and behavioral deficits.5
Patterns of catch-up growth
2013, Journal of PediatricsCatch-up growth of supine length/height of very low birth weight, small for gestational age preterm infants to adulthood
2005, Journal of PediatricsCitation Excerpt :Contrary to HC growth, height catch-up occurred across the entire growth period as long as velocity was sufficiently high and the environmental conditions were good. Similar results have been reported by Hirata and Bosque,28 Ford et al,7 Saigal et al,8 Hack et al,1 and Doyle et al.29 Delayed catch-up in growth of VLBW infants was not evident in early studies with short follow-up durations.2,4,6 Overall our results were poorer for boys, as in the study of Hack et al,1 where the VLBW males remained significantly shorter than their AGA counterparts at age 20 (< −2 SD).
Extreme prematurity: Optimism or pessimism?
2004, Archives de PediatrieAssociations between size at birth and size at 6 years among preterm infants: a retrospective cohort study
2022, Pediatrics International
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From the Department of Pediatrics, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
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Supported by a grant from the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute and from private funding.
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Reprint requests: Toshiko Hirata, MD, Newborn Services, California Pacific Medical Center, 3850 California St., San Francisco, CA 94118.
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9/22/87968