Metabolic Syndrome and Endothelial Dysfunction in a Population Born Small for Gestational Age Relationship to Growth and Gh Therapy

Being born small for gestational age (SGA) and a rapid increase in weight during early childhood and infancy have been strongly linked to metabolic syndrome. A transversal study was conducted on 167 pre- pubertal and 102 pubertal subjects; auxological parameters, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, laboratory data, and carotid-wall thickness (CA-IMT) were measured. Results: Patients born SGA with spontaneous catch-up growth have higher values of BMI, blood pressure, HOMA index, and CA-IMT than those treated with GH and the appropriate-forgestational age (AGA) group. In conclusion, subjects born SGA are at high risk of developing chronic diseases, including obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and endothelial dysfunction, at an early age, mainly those with good catch-up growth compared with those receiving GH because of negative catch-up growth. Our data is compared with published results.