Growth and puberty status inThalassemic patients At zagazig univeristy hospital

Endocrine complications in patients with thalassaemia in developing countries may be frequent due to suboptimal iron chelation.The aim of this study was to evaluate the status of growth and puberty in patients with beta-thalassaemia major in pediatric hematology unit at zagazig university hospitals.We evaluated the growth and sexual development of 100 patientswith thalassaemia major aged 8-20 years. They were classified according to regularity of iron chelation therapy into (13 regular and 87 irregular).50 healthy person of the same age group are used as a control group. The following data were recorded in history taking, age, sex, height, weight, serum ferritin levels and pubertal evaluation according to tanner score was done .Failure of puberty was present in 67.2% of males and 61.15% of femaleShort stature (height below 3rd percentile for age and Sex) is present in 76% of patients(78.6% of male, and 71.8% of female). <There is significant increase in the main height among regular iron chelating patients(141.1±7.4) in comparison to irregular iron chelating (133.5±12.1)