Short stature in transfusion dependant beta thalassemia children.

Background: Due to high prevalence of beta thalassemia in North India, we conduct this study to assess the prevalence of short stature in such cases. Objective: Study the prevalence of short stature in transfusion dependant beta thalassemia in children aged 5 years-18 years and its correlation with transfusion frequency. Materials and Methods: This is a cross sectional study performed at pediatrics department, government medical college, and Patiala included 93 cases of transfusion dependant beta thalassemia. Anthropometric data was recorded and height of every child was plotted on Indian academy of pediatrics 2015 growth charts. Short stature defined as height less than 3rd percentile. Data were collected, managed, edited, entered, and analyzed by Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Receiver operating curve was analyzed for frequency of transfusion and short stature. The level of significance taken for the entire statistical test was a P-value of <0.05. Results: 64 males and 29 females were included aged 5 years-18 years with mean age of 10.09 ± 3.4 years. 41 (44.1%) cases were short stature, including 33 (80.5%) males and 8 (19.5%) females. Mean age of short stature cases was 11.9 ± 2.9 years compared to 8.6 ± 3.1 years in cases with normal height (p-value<0.05). ROC curve between short stature and transfusion frequency showed cut off of 16 days. We observed a significant correlation between frequency of transfusion and the incidence of short stature (P=0.001). Conclusion: Short stature is highly prevalent among multi-transfused beta thalassemia children and hence it is recommended that every patient should be sort out for short stature.