Pak J Med Sci 2016 Vol. 32 No. 6 www.pjms.com.pk 1321 Open Access INTRODUCTION Short stature is defned as height less than or equal to 2 SD below the mean for the age and sex or height below 3 rd centile. 1 Causes of short stature can either be normal variants of growth like familial short stature and constitutional delay of growth and puberty(CDGP) 2,3 or it can be a result of chronic systemic diseases (renal, pulmonary and cardiac diseases, coeliac disease) 4,5 endocrine disorders (hypopituitarism, isolated growth hormone defciency, isolated hypothyroidism, endogenous & exogenous Cushing syndrome, adrenal insuffciency, osteomalacia or rickets), 6-9 genetic (cystic fbrosis), 10 chromosomal disorders (Turners syndrome) 11 and skeletal dysplasias. 12 Malnutrition, chemotherapy, radiotherapy 13 and Correspondence: Dr. Syed Hunain Riaz, MBBS, FCPS. 4-5 M, Model Town Extension, Maulana Abul Hasan Isphahani, Main Faisal Town, Boulevard, Lahore, Pakistan. E-mail: syedhunain@gmail.com * Received for Publication: July 23, 2016 * Corrected and Edited: September 9, 2016 * Accepted for Publication: * September 25, 2016 Original Article Causes of short stature in Pakistani children found at an Endocrine Center Ali Jawa 1 , Syed Hunain Riaz 2 , Muhammad Zaman Khan Assir 3 , Bahjat Afreen 4 , Amna Riaz 5 , Javed Akram 6 ABSTRACT Background and Objective: Short stature is defned as height below 3 rd centile. Causes of short stature can range from familial, endocrine disorders, chronic diseases to chromosomal disorders. Most common cause in literature being idiopathic short stature. Early detection and management of remedial disorders like malnutrition and vitamin D defciency, Endocrine disorders like growth hormone defciency & hypothyroidism can lead to attainment of expected height. Pakistani data shows idiopathic short stature as the most common cause of short stature. Our study aimed at detecting causes of short stature in children/ adolescents at an Endocrine referral center. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at WILCARE Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism, Lahore on 70 well-nourished children/adolescents. The patients had been evaluated clinically, biochemically and radiologically as needed. Biochemical testing included hormonal testing as well to detect endocrine causes. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS 20.0. Results: Leading cause of short stature in our population was Growth Hormone (GH) defciency seen in 48 out of 70 (69%) patients. Second most common endocrine abnormality seen in these patients was Vitamin D defciency [44 out of 70 patients (63%)]. Primary hypothyroidism; pan-hypopituitarism & adrenal insuffciency were other endocrine causes. The weight for age was below 3 rd percentile in 57 (81%) patients, with no association with other major causes. Conclusion: Growth hormone and Vitamin D defciency constitute one of the major causes of short stature among well-nourished children with short stature in Pakistan. KEY WORDS: Children, Growth hormone defciency, Hypothyroidism, Pakistani, Short stature, Vitamin D defciency. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.326.11077 How to cite this: Jawa A, Riaz SH, Assir MZK, Afreen B, Riaz A, Akram J. Causes of short stature in Pakistani children found at an Endocrine Center. Pak J Med Sci. 2016;32(6):1321-1325. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.326.11077 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.