Assessment of Bone Age and Growth Parameters in Egyptian Children with Bronchial Asthma

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory condition of childhood worldwide and good asthma care extends beyond providing medications to improve outcome. Nevertheless, the goal of different therapeutic approaches is not only to treat the disease, but to improve patients’ quality of life and prevent the long-term consequences of childhood asthma. Objectives: to assess the bone age and growth parameters in asthmatic children and to investigate the impact of asthma severity, control and asthma treatment on the childhood growth parameters. Methods: This cross-sectional controlled study included 40 asthmatic children recruited from Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Clinic, Ain- Shams University, aged 4 to 10 years old and compared to 40 healthy age- and sex - matched control group. Results: Among the 40 asthmatic children; 29 out of 40 (72.5%) had mild persistent asthma, 6 children (15%) with moderate persistent asthma and 5 patients (12.%%) had severe asthma. No significant differences were found in measured growth parameters between patients and controls and also no significant difference among the different asthma severity subgroups (p= 0.093, p= 0.295, p= 0.357). The bone age of asthmatic children was significantly lower than the controls (p= 0.034). Also a significantly higher difference between the chronological age and the bone age among patients compared to controls (p- value = 0.044). Patients were categorized into group A and group B according to presence and absence of delay in bone age (Group A; with normal bone age, group B; with delayed bone age). Delayed bone age was more prevalent in the patient groups ( 66.7% in the ICS group and 60.7% in the ICS + oral corticosteroids (OCS) compared to the control group (27.5%). Conclusion: Asthmatic children were found to have delayed bone age and growth parameters. While ICS were essential for symptoms control, their use, particularly in combination with oral corticosteroids, had negatively impacted growth.