New Down Syndrome Growth Charts Show Improvement Prior to Older Charts :

We now recognize more and more that one standard growth chart is not sufficient for tracking the growth trajectories of unique populations of pediatric patients who have underlying medical issues. One such population are children with Down Syndrome who have lower birth weights and prior studies show slower growth than children without this genetic disorder even though we have made lots of progress over the past several years to improve the growth and wellbeing of these patients.

Thus a new look at growth trajectories in Down syndrome patients is needed and fortunately, Zemel et al. (doi/10.1542/peds.2015-1652) have done just that. These authors opted to follow a convenience sample of children with Down syndrome until they reached up to 20 years of age and measured their growth parameters over time to develop growth charts specific for this population. Their charts are based on more than 1500 measurements on over 600 participants and show differences compared to older charts used for this population in the past.

Accessing this article gives you access to their charts so as to follow patients with Down syndrome as well as to see how your particular patient compares to others of the same sex and age. Chart a course for reading this article which makes a great addition to helping you track the growth trajectories of your patients with Down syndrome.