Peer-reviewed article
Endoscopic and histopathological findings in children with growth retardation.
Arslan M ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a clinical study describing endoscopic and histopathological findings in 90 children aged 2-18 years presenting with growth retardation. The study found that all children had positive endoscopic findings including pangastritis, duodenitis, and other gastrointestinal abnormalities. However, the analysis found no statistical association between H. pylori infection and markers of malnutrition or growth measures.
Key points
- All 90 children with persistent growth retardation despite adequate caloric intake had positive endoscopic findings
- 72.2% had chronic H. pylori gastritis; 20% had celiac disease; 17.8% had reflux oesophagitis
- 64.4% of children had acute malnutrition (mild, moderate or severe); 22.2% had stunting
- No statistically significant association found between H. pylori gastritis and iron deficiency, B12 deficiency, or anthropometric measures
- 37.8% of patients had dyspeptic symptoms; 62.2% did not report gastrointestinal symptoms
Limitations
This is a descriptive clinical study of children already referred to gastroenterology clinics, so findings may not represent all children with growth retardation in the population. The lack of a comparison group and the hospital-based sample limit generalisability of findings about the clinical significance of endoscopic abnormalities.
Abstract
Objective The study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics, endoscopic and histopathological findings of children admitted to the paediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic for growth retardation. Methods The study was carried out with 90 patients aged 2-18 years who presented to our paediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic with complaints of growth retardation and underwent oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) because growth retardation persisted despite adequate caloric support (at least 3 months). Results The mean age of the patients was 11.11±4.27 years, 56 (62.2%) were female and 52 (57.8%) were under 12 years of age. Of the patients, 36.7% had mild, 47.8% moderate and 15.6% severe acute malnutrition, 22.2% stunting and 7.8% severe stunting. Associated dyspeptic symptoms were present in 34 (37.8%) patients and celiac antibodies were positive in 20 (22.2%) patients. Iron deficiency was present in 28.9% and B12 deficiency in 41.1% of the patients. The most common endoscopic findings were pangastritis (88.9%), duodenitis (61.1%), bile reflux (35.6%) and bulbitis (31.1%). Chronic Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) gastritis was found in 72.2%, celiac disease in 20.0% and reflux oesophagitis in 17.8% of the patients. No association was found between chronic H. pylori gastritis and iron deficiency anaemia and vitamin B12 deficiency (p=0.90, p=0.89). There was no association between chronic H. pylori gastritis and height-for-age, weight-for-height and BMI z scores (0.31, 0.57, 0.43). Conclusion In this study, positive endoscopic findings were found in all children with persistent growth retardation despite adequate caloric support, even in the absence of accompanying dyspeptic symptoms. More studies evaluating the usefulness of endoscopy in children with growth retardation are needed.