[The influence of parental height on diagnosis of Turner syndrome in newborns and very young girls].

INTRODUCTION

The high efficacy of treatment in Turner's patients (TS) is possible only when the therapy has been initiated early. Thus, in order to prevent short stature, an early detection of TS is indispensable, i.e. prenatally or at very early childhood.

AIM OF STUDY: To compare mother's and father's stature to length and body mass of newborn with Turner's syndrome.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A cohort of 355 female newborns with Turner's syndrome from single pregnancies were retrospectively studied. Data on GA, birth weight and birth length were taken from the medical records. Body height of both parents was recorded and related to norms for 18-year old subjects recorded in 1983.

RESULTS

Mean body height of mothers amounted to -0.3+/-1.0 SDS. and that of fathers -0.2+/-1.0 SDS. Mean parental height was -0,2+/-0,8 SDS; 70% of parental stature is appropriate to normal range (-1,0 to +1,0 SDS).

CONCLUSIONS

The frequency of short parents, especially of fathers, is in the Turner population higher than of the tall ones. It may be presumed that short fathers pass their Turner daughters a deficient growth potential which may be one of the sources of deficient body height in that syndrome. Thus, only a short father may be considered a risk factor pointing to detailed search for Turner's syndrome, provided father's body height has been properly determined and assessed.