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Constitutional Delay of Growth and Adolescent Development

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Basic and Clinical Aspects of Growth Hormone

Part of the book series: Serono Symposia, USA ((SERONOSYMP))

Abstract

Height, height velocity and sexual development are growth parameters with great variations. In the European countries and the USA, numerous systematic investigations with regard to this variability have been carried out during the 1930s and 1940s (1–7). In 1931, Priesel and Wagner demonstrated convincingly this variation in groups of girls of the same age but different stages of maturity (4). The more advanced the sexual development, the taller the girls were. In 1933, Rosenstern reported a series of observations in late maturing adolescents (5). He wrote “... that there occur rather considerable retardations of sexual maturation which lie far beyond the normal range and that nevertheless the final result can correspond to the norm.” In 1950, Lawson Wilkins added skeletal maturation to the usual growth parameters of height, growth velocity and sexual maturation (8). He considered this information particularly suitable to adequately characterize the general biological maturity of the individual (8). As it turned out, the late maturing children always had a retarded bone age. According to Wilkins, constitutional delay of growth and adolescent development (CDGAD) is characterized by the following symptoms: (1) retarded longitudinal growth, generally from early childhood; (2) retarded skeletal maturation; (3) retarded sexual development; and, (4) consistent family history.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitaetskinderklinik, Tuebingen, Germany

    J. R. Bierich

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  1. University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Barry B. Bercu

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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York

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Bierich, J.R. (1988). Constitutional Delay of Growth and Adolescent Development. In: Bercu, B.B. (eds) Basic and Clinical Aspects of Growth Hormone. Serono Symposia, USA. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5505-2_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5505-2_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5507-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5505-2

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