SHORT REPORT Teresa Arrigo Æ Filippo De Luca Æ Concetta Sferlazzas Cristina Lucanto Æ Maria Francesca Messina Mariella Valenzise Æ Lucia Marseglia Malgorzata Wasniewska Young adults with cystic fibrosis are shorter than healthy peers because their parents are also short Received: 3 May 2005 / Accepted: 20 June 2005 / Published online: 16 August 2005 Ó Springer-Verlag 2005 The aim of this study was to evaluate whether cystic fibrosis (CF) patients achieve a final height (FH) similar to the healthy population and/or appropriate for their genetic potential. FHs of the patients were compared with both the respective target heights (THs) and the FHs of age- matched healthy adults living in the same geographic areas, who served as controls. Patients’ THs were also compared with controls. Heights of both patients and their parents were measured with the same portable Harpenden stadiometers and by the same persons according to a standardised technique [4]. Definition of FH in the CF series was based on two criteria: bone age of at least 18 (boys) or 17 years (girls) and complete pubertal development. TH was calculated by father’s height + mother’s height ± 13 / 2. Patients were genotyped by screening for the nine different mutations affecting the CFTR gene repre- senting more than 80% of CF carriers in the Western European population [5]. The control population consisted of 371 young adults aged 18–20 years (130 males, 241 females) covering the two regions of origin of the CF patients admitted to this study, namely Sicily and Calabria. Auxological data of controls were collected to draw up Italian growth charts for height, weight and body mass index (BMI) [3]. Heights were assessed with the same portable Harpen- den stadiometers, by the same persons who measured the CF patients and their parents and according to the same technique [4]. In boys with CF, the average FH was comparable to both parental height and TH (Fig.1). When compared with control stature, the patients’ FH was lower (Fig. 1). In girls with CF, the mean FH was very close to both maternal stature and TH (Fig. 2). When compared to control adult height, however, the patients’ FH was lower (Fig. 2). In both sexes, TH was lower than control FH due to the fact that both fathers and mothers of CF patients were shorter than controls of the respective sex. On the contrary, when compared with their sons and daughters, patient parents had a superimposable stature (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). In the overall CF series, patient FH was positively related to TH (r =0.55; P <0.001). A positive re- lationship was also found between patients’ FHs and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (r =0.25; P <0.05). No relationship was found between patient FH and either BMI, pancreatic enzyme capsule intake, age at diagnosis or genotype. In CF patients, the BMI was lower than that of controls (19.8±1.8 vs. 22.4±1.9; P <0.0005). Our data have shown that even nowadays, CF patients achieve a FH which remains slightly below that of controls, despite clinical impressions and demon- strated improvements during the last 20 years [1, 2,6]. Patient FHs were mainly conditioned by parental stat- ures, whereas the prognostic role of other factors was less important. Our results might suggest the hypothesis of abnormal parental height in CF secondary to carrying the CFTR gene, although the mechanism responsible for this auxological impairment is not clear. We conclude that FH in CF is lower than that recorded in healthy young adults living in the same geographic regions; patient FH is superimposable to that of their parents and strongly related to it; TH of CF patients is lower than control stature and FH in CF is mainly conditioned by TH, at least in a selected popu- lation consisting of patients who are able to achieve 20 years of age. T. Arrigo Æ F. De Luca (&) Æ C. Sferlazzas Æ C. Lucanto M. F. Messina Æ M. Valenzise Æ L. Marseglia Æ M. Wasniewska Dipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche Mediche e Chirurgiche, Policlinico Universitario di Messina, Via Consolare Valeria, 98123 Messina-Gazzi, Italy E-mail: wasniewska@yahoo.it Tel.: +39-090-2213157 Fax: +39-090-2212143 Eur J Pediatr (2005) 164: 781–782 DOI 10.1007/s00431-005-1749-1