Endocrine causes of short stature.

The primary clinical characteristic of shortness of stature due to endocrine deficiency is a slow rate of growth (less than 1.5 in., or 4 cm, each year). Dental and skeletal ages are delayed. Specific tests of thyroid and pituitary function must be done to document the deficiency. Replacement therapy with levothyroxine or human growth hormone, or both, should be given as indicated. Short children who do not have hormone deficiency grow about 1.5 in. (4 cm) each year but have normal skeletal and dental ages. Children with Turner syndrome, primordial or genetic short stature, or intrauterine growth retardation do not respond to levothyroxine or human growth hormone replacement therapy. Constitutional delay in sexual development is a common cause of short stature in adolescent males and must be differentiated from hypopituitarism.