The copper content in the blood plasma of children with different types of short stature

The aim: to investigate the copper content in blood serum of children with different short stature types. Materials and methods: In the first stage, a comprehensive survey of 258 school children aged 7-11 was carried out in Chernivtsi to assess the prevalence of short stature children of school-age. In the second stage, a comparative study of 42 children aged 3 to 15 years with different types of short stature was conducted. Research: anthropometry, determination of growth hormone, TSH, IGF-1, and copper level in blood plasma. Results: The largest growth rate in children with somatotropic insufficiency, the syndrome of a biologically inactive growth hormone ranged from 4.1 cm/year to 1.6 cm/year, the ones with a family constitutional low-growth – from 5.7 cm/year to 3.3 cm/year. In 57 cases, that makes 1% of children with short stature, the blood plasma level of copper made less and rated 0.89 ± 0.04 μg / ml, which is believed to be lower (pу0,001) the average copper in children of the control group – 1.07 ± 0.02 μg / ml. Indices of copper in blood plasma in children with somatotropic insufficiency were the lowest and averaged 0.75 ± 0.03 μg / l, p<0.05. Conclusions: The lack of copper in the blood plasma is observed in most children with short stature, which indicates the need for appropriate correction.