Child growth clinic is in charge of diagnosis and treatment in growth troubles.

These days, ‘height’ is a crucial problem to teenagers.
For teenager patients, many visits the Growth Center worrying if they’ve failed to meet the normal height even though they are tall enough. And for parents, they visit the Growth Center concerned if their children’s heights are smaller than the others.

• 01Causes of low-height

  Familial low-height
  The most common cause of low-height in South Korea. There is a short person among the family members(parents, grandparents, relatives). Though it shows steady growth of 4cm or more every year, because the growth declines gradually, it ends smaller than the average height when grown as an adult.

  Constitutional growth retardation
  체As a constitutional growth delay, the bone age is behind about 2~3 years for his age. The pubertal development shows late start about 2~3 years than the peers. In many cases, patient’s parents also has a history of retarded growth. Although the current height may be small, as the growth lasts for a long time, eventually reaches normal height when adulthood is attained.

  Short stature because of chronic disease
  Because of congenital heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, malabsorption caused by interstinal disease, and liver disease and etc.

  Turner syndrome
  Height doesn’t grow well because of chromosomal abnormality. Despite of reaching puberty, no sign of breast development or menstruation is seen.

  Intrauterine growth restriction
  If nutritional supply is low during pregnancy, birth weight may be extremely low too. This leads to many cases of short height in the future.

  Skeletal abnormalities
  Rickets caused by metabolic abnormality and lack of vitamin D. And achondroplasia which is usually called as ‘dwarf’, is caused because chondrogenesis doesn’t works well.

  Nutrient deficiency
  Even though the patient doesn’t suffer from a particular disease, innutrition caused by bad eating habits such as being picky about food, light eating, may cause retarded growth.

  Inappropriate hormone secretion
  Growth hormone deficiency (GHD), thyroid hormone deficiency, diabetes, Cushing syndrome(over-secretion of steroid hormone), over-secretion of sex hormone and etc. Since the cause of low-height varies greatly, it is essential to look for a cause. The treatment also differs greatly depending on the causes.

• 02Low-height treatment

  If there is a cause of the disorder, the appropriate treatment of this disorder is crucial. The growth hormone makes IGF-I(insulin growth factor 1), which influences one’s growth, at the liver and skeletal system. In South Korea, growth hormone treatment for growth hormone deficiency, chronic renal failure, Turner syndrome, and Prader-Willi syndrome is covered by health insurance.
  
  Usage of growth hormones are allowed in several diseases including some part of idiopathic short stature and small for gestational age infants in other countries. Effect of growth hormone differs from patient to patient, and disease by disease. Also the occurrence of side effects has subtle difference by diseases too.
  
  The most important thing is to get treatment from a specialized, experienced doctor and being diagnosed with complication or whether the treatment is effective or not.

• 01Type of Atopic dermatitis

  Atopic dermatitis’s major contributor is sorted as allergic and non-allergic.
  Looking it from the non-allergic side, dry skin is the key. If the skin is dry, you may experience an itchy feeling which causes you to scratch them. Then the sore skin gets worsen, making a fine crack at the skin. This destroys the defense function of the skin surface, letting germs, stimulants, and allergen invade the skin, causing and worsening atopic dermatitis.
  Heredity also has a big influence on the occurrence of atopic dermatitis. When both parents has suffered from atopic dermatitis, 81% of the child show dermatitis symptoms.
  
  50% or more patient’s main onset age is between 3 months and 1 year after birth. An additional 30% patient outbreaks within 1~5 years from then. After the outbreak of dermatitis, about 80% of patients experience improvements on the symptoms between 1.8-2.4 years later.

• 02Atopic dermatitis treatment

  As for drug treatments, the following methods are commonly used.
  
  Topical steroid
  Is still the basics of atopic dermatitis treatment.
  There are various topical steroid drugs with different intensity. It is important to select, use an appropriate intensity and type of drug depending on the site of lesion and the severity of the disease.
  As for a face, short term use of a light intensity steroid is needed. And for the hand eczema, since the skin at the hands and feet is thick, should be treated with a relatively strong intensity steroid.
  
  Topical immunomodulator
  An ointment made with tacrolimus and pimecrolimus is recently developed as an substitute of steroid ointments.
  This ointment has no side effects of the existing steroid ointment, occurred when applied for a long-term, so it is frequently prescribed to patient’s with sensitive skin. It is especially effective on patients who are infants over 2 or adults, suffering from atopic dermatitis at the face and neck, where the skin is thin and weak.
  
  If it’s your first time applying at your skin, some may experience a little burning feeling. But no worries, after continuous use, most patients gets used to it.
  
  Systemic immune-suppressing
  Recently, a systemic immune-suppressing drug, cyclosporine is used to some patients with severe atopic dermatitis, who has experienced no effect by existing therapies.
  Although the effect may be superb, there might be side effects such as high blood pressure, renal function disorder. So it is important to make close observation while medication.