Effects of Repeated Courses of Daily Steroids and of Persistent Proteinuria on Linear Growth in Children with Nephrotic Syndrome

The growth-inhibitory effects of courses of daily steroid therapy and of persistent proteinuria were assessed in 125 Indian and African children with nephrotic syndrome (NS) who were followed for an average of 3.9 years (range 0.25-14 years). Among the biopsied patients, 81% of Indians had minimal--change nephropathy and 49% of Africans had membranous nephropathy. The mean height standard deviation score (SDS) in 87 children who had received prednisone for an average of 36 weeks (range 4-250 weeks) was compared with that in 38 patients who had been managed symptomatically. Heights of untreated African children with persistent proteinuria were within the normal range for age, race and sex. The height SDS +/- SD for 77 Indian children in the prednisone-treated group was -1.06 +/- 1.44, which was not significantly different from -0.92 +/- 0.96 observed among 6 children in the untreated group (P = 0.75). In Africans the height SDS in 10 prednisone-treated children was -1.82 +/- 0.81 which was similar to that observed (P = 0.74) in 32 untreated patients -1.77 +/- 1.61. No significant correlation was found between the duration of prednisone therapy and height SDS for individual children among the 87 treated patients using regression analysis. The findings remained unchanged when children who had received less than 12 weeks of prednisone were excluded, or when comparison were drawn between those treated for less than and longer than 36 weeks. We conclude that courses of daily steroids or persistent proteinuria do not inhibit linear growth in Indian and African children with NS.