Evaluation of vitamin D, vitamin B12, serum zinc, GH, and IGF-1 levels in patients presenting with growth retardation

This study was conducted to determine the necessity of planned tests in the diagnosis phase of patients who applied to or were referred to a tertiary center with complaints of growth retardation, in light of current literature. In our study, data were collected by scanning the outpatient clinic records and files of children aged 3mount-18 years who applied to the General Children's Polyclinic of Harran University Faculty of Medicine, who complained of growth retardation and were examined and examined. Weight, height and body mass indexes were evaluated according to percentile curves appropriate to age and gender. Data obtained from parameters such as Dvit, B12vit, serum zinc, growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), levels requested from patients whose height and weight were below the 3rd percentile were subjected to statistical analysis in SPSS 25.0 program. The Kolmogrov-Smirov test was used to evaluate whether the data were normally distributed. Quantitative variables that were normally distributed were expressed as mean±standard deviation, and categorical variables were expressed as frequency (percentage). For quantitative variables that do not conform to normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney U test, a non-parametric test, was used. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. When the probability (p) value was less than 0.05, comparisons were considered statistically significant (p<0.05). According to the findings obtained from the study; a total of 200 cases were evaluated, 100 of which were in the patient group (56.0% male) and 100 of which were in the control group (56.0% female). The patient group cases were 6.00±4.49 (years) old on average, and the control group cases were 6.11±4.65 (years) old. The average height and weight of the patient group cases were statistically significantly lower than the control group cases. The patient group had an average height of 100.96±26.24 (cm) and an average weight of 16.37±9.21 (kg), while the control group had an average height of 110.83±31.27 (cm) and an average weight of 22.55±14.49 (kg). In terms of developmental level, 100% of the patients with growth retardation (patient group) were at <3P level in both height and weight. The height and weight of the control group (without growth retardation) patients were at most 50p (18.0%). The patient group had an average vitamin D level of 26.91±13.39 and the control group had an average vitamin D level of 28.81±8.19, and although the control group had higher average vitamin D levels than the patient group, the difference was not statistically significant. The mean vitamin B12 levels of the patient group were determined as 411.57±170.58, the mean vitamin B12 levels of the control group were determined as 423.13±167.85 and although the mean vitamin B12 levels of the control group were higher than the patient group, the difference was not statistically significant. The mean IGF1 levels of the patient group were determined as 86.95±74.38, the mean IGF-1 levels of the control group were determined as 107.03±94.96 and although the mean IGF-1 vitamin levels of the control group were higher than the patient group, the difference was not statistically significant. The mean zinc levels of the control group were determined as 10.31±3.60, the mean zinc levels of the patient group were determined as 6.17±3.77 and the mean zinc levels of the control group were statistically significantly higher than the patient group. The mean GH levels of the patient group cases were determined as 1.85 ±1.70, the mean GH levels of the control group cases were determined as 1.40 ±1.47, and the mean GH levels of the patient group cases were statistically significantly higher than the control group. Keywords: Infant, Growth, Growth Retardation, Child, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Serum Zinc, GH, IGF-1