Normal growth velocity before diagnosis of celiac disease.

BACKGROUND: Clinical experience leads us to believe there may be patients with celiac disease who have not yet been treated, with a normal physical growth. METHODS: To evaluate height velocity of patients with confirmed celiac disease before their diagnosis and treatment, anthropometric measurements taken by the general pediatricians in charge of the primary care of the patients before they were sent to the authors' hospital were studied. Forty-two growth periods (available velocities) were measured at varying intervals (ranging from 6 to 27 months) in 23 patients aged 0.1 to 10.66 years were analyzed. RESULTS: All patients studied during the first semester of life (n = 5) showed normal growth velocity, and 6 of 10 patients showed normal growth velocity during the second semester of life. Ten of 12 patients between the ages of 1.0 and 1.99 years of age showed normal height velocity, and 7 of 9 patients aged 2.0 to 10.66 years showed normal height velocity. Normal height velocities were found not only during the first year of life, but also in children aged 1 to 8 years. CONCLUSIONS: Results should alert pediatricians and those in gastroenterology and growth clinics. In the latter case, norms for studying children who have short stature but are growing at a normal rate should not be a condition for excluding a child from screening for celiac disease.