Walker S P, Golden M H
Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 1988 May;42(5):395-404.
The linear growth of 369 children treated for severe malnutrition at the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, University Hospital of the West Indies, was examined retrospectively. Mean age was 12.6 months and 58 per cent of the children were oedematous on admission. Mean length for age was the same at admission and discharge (SD score - 3.4). Therefore when the sample is considered as a whole there was no catch-up in length for age. A sub-group of 108 children began to show catch-up growth in length. This sub-group did not differ in age or sex from the total sample but contained a greater proportion of non-oedematous children. Children in the sub-group were also more stunted initially (P less than 0.0001) than the group as a whole. The absolute rate of linear growth was similar in oedematous and non-oedematous children. Change in length for age during recovery was significantly less in children who were oedematous on admission. Two-thirds of the children attained at least 85 per cent weight for length before they began to increase in length. Thus in most cases linear growth followed replenishment of body weight. The data point to the need for further investigations to determine why some children were capable of early catch-up growth in length while others, with similar characteristics, showed minimal or no linear growth during recovery.
对西印度群岛大学医院热带代谢研究单位收治的369名重度营养不良儿童的线性生长情况进行了回顾性研究。平均年龄为12.6个月，58%的儿童入院时存在水肿。入院时和出院时的年龄别身长均值相同（标准差分数为 - 3.4）。因此，从整体样本来看，年龄别身长没有追赶生长。108名儿童组成的亚组开始出现身长的追赶生长。该亚组在年龄和性别上与总样本没有差异，但非水肿儿童的比例更高。该亚组儿童最初也比整个组更为矮小（P < 0.0001）。水肿儿童和非水肿儿童的线性生长绝对速率相似。入院时存在水肿的儿童在恢复过程中年龄别身长的变化显著更小。三分之二的儿童在身长开始增加之前，身长体重比至少达到了85%。因此，在大多数情况下，线性生长跟随体重的恢复。这些数据表明需要进一步研究，以确定为什么一些儿童能够早期出现身长的追赶生长，而其他具有相似特征的儿童在恢复过程中线性生长极少或没有生长。
