Severe growth retardation in children with inflammatory bowel disease

From a group of 130 youngsters with inflammatory bowel disease, 22 were severely growth retarded (below the third percentile in height). This had preceded gastrointestinal symptoms for 1 to 11.4 years in 8 patients and corticosteroid therapy in 14. Endocrine evaluation demonstrated abnormally low 24-hour urinary gonadotropins in five of six patients more than age 16, and depressed growth hormone response to insulininduced hypoglycemia in 11 of 13 tested. Growth retardation in this group was attributed to a secondary hypopituitarism.