[Prevention of vitamin D deficiency in adolescents and pre-adolescents. An interventional multicenter study on the biological effect of repeated doses of 100,000 IU of vitamin D3].

Unlabelled: Recent studies have shown a high prevalence of calcium and vitamin D deficiencies in adolescents. The aim of this present study was to follow the changes in calcium status and 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and parathyroid hormone (iPTH) levels during winter in preadolescents and adolescents from four university hospitals in northern France.

Subjects And Methods: Two groups of teenagers and adolescents (range: 10-15 years) were followed from October 1996 to June 1997.

Growth curves in untreated Ullrich-Turner syndrome: French reference standards 1-22 years.

Unlabelled: In this retrospective study spanning 22 years, 167 untreated females with Ullrich-Turner syndrome were identified and their case records followed throughout their growth period. Information on total and segmental height and weight was retrieved from the case records and used to plot growth curves. Centiles from birth to adulthood were calculated which showed that the normal pubertal growth spurt was absent.

[Vaginal ecology, climate, landscapes and populations (xenoecies and facies)].

Brief study of vaginal populations, the human vagina being considered as a biotopic cavity. Allusion to dynamic aspects ("vaginal climate", "landscapes") and to various bacterial populations. Introduction of the concept of xenoecies and of facies.

Body Mass Index variations: centiles from birth to 87 years.

This report provides Body Mass Index (weight/height2) values for the French population from birth to the age of 87 years. BMI curves increase during the first year, decrease until the age of 6, increase again up to 65 years and decrease thereafter. These variations reflect the total changes of fat body mass during life.

Influence of body fat distribution during childhood on body fat distribution in adulthood: a two-decade follow-up study.

Development of body fat distribution was assessed in a two-decade follow-up study. The present article describes the development of various trunk/extremity ratios and gives the figures by age and sex between 1 month to 21 years. The relationship between adult and childhood skinfold (SF) ratio measurements is weak in boys and slightly better in girls.

The prediction in boys and girls of the weight/height index and various skinfold measurements in adults: a two-decade follow-up study.

Prediction of adiposity in adults from anthropometric measurements (arm and trunk skinfolds, weight/height) made during childhood and adolescence was assessed in a two-decade follow-up study. Weight/height showed the best correlation between childhood and adulthood values in both sexes. The child-adult correlations for skinfolds were better in males than in females and their value varied according to body site.

A lifetime asymptotic growth curve for human height.

A new seven-parameter asymptotic growth curve has been applied to longitudinal data on the height of 13 boys and 14 girls from 1 month to 19 years of age. The residual sums of squares with this new curve were 7.5 times lower on the average than with the currently-used five-parameter curve No.

Tracking the development of adiposity from one month of age to adulthood.

The development of adiposity was followed in 164 subjects from the age of one month to adulthood. The 25th and 75th centiles of the weight/height2 (W/H2) index were chosen as cut-off points to define the lean, medium and fat subjects at both one and 21 years of age. Only 42% of the children remained in their original category, that is 41% of the lean infants at one year stayed lean, 42% of the medium infants stayed medium and 41% of the fat infants stayed fat.

[Ovarian follicle cysts and precocious puberty].

A "transient" precocious puberty with ovarian follicular cysts was observed in four girls. Each girl presented with several successive and transient episodes of development of secondary sex characters: breast development, areolar pigmentation, brown abdominal median line were the clinical signs of oestrogen secretion. At the time of referral, plasma and urinary gonadotropins levels were low in the prepubertal range while plasma oestradiol concentrations were elevated, in the pubertal range.

[Medroxyprogesterone acetate. Contributive treatment in congenital adrenal hyperplasia caused by 21-hydroxylase deficiency in children].

Among 59 children presenting with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency observed between 1976 and 1982, 12 (9 males, 3 females) aged 3 1/2 to 12 years, were treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) associated with the usual glucocorticoid and eventually mineralo-corticoid treatment. There were two indications: precocious puberty after the onset of the gluco-mineralo-corticoid treatment; Unbalanced biological status with advancement of bone maturation. After the onset of MPA, a decrease in plasma 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17 OHP) and testosterone levels is observed, the bone maturation speed decreases when growth in height continues.

[Auditory reaction time, a maturation index in the athletic child?].

Auditive reaction time (A.R.T.

Adiposity rebound in children: a simple indicator for predicting obesity.

To follow and predict the evolution of adiposity during growth, individual adiposity curves, assessed by the weight/height2 index, were drawn for 151 children from the age of 1 month to 16 yr. Adiposity increases during the 1st yr and then decreases. A renewed rise, termed here the adiposity rebound, occurs at about 6 yr.

[Does adrenarche really play a determining role in pubertal development? A study of the dissociations between adrenarche and gonadarche. The failure of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate treatment in delayed adrenarche].

The temporal events of adrenarche (prepubertal shift in adrenal androgen biosynthesis) are described. The mechanisms responsible for the initiation and maintenance of the adrenal secretion of androgens are poorly understood. The hypotheses put forward to explain it are reviewed.

Adiposity indices in children.

On the basis of a longitudinal study of growth in French children, we attempted to find a valid index for estimating adiposity, and to specify the optimal conditions for its use. The Quetelet index was found suitable for application to children, but as with all methods, a certain lack of precision proved unavoidable because of the different stages of growth observed at a given age. For use by clinicians, we provide charts, based on the Quetelet index and on age, permitting estimation of adiposity in any child on the basis of longitudinal study measurements.

[Critical analysis of the diagnostic value of the first sesamoid bone of the thumb as an indicator of bone development in puberty].

Although the appearance of the first sesamoid of the thumb has been widely reported as being a good indicator of puberty, it should be noted that this finding has only been confirmed in cross-sectional studies. When trying to determine this relationship through a longitudinal study, we see that, although the correlation indices come within the limits of statistical significance, the wide range of variability in appearance reduces its practical usefulness. The sesamoid bone normally appears during puberty but neither the initial moment of this occurrence nor the exact stage of the child's development at that time can be assessed.

[Puberty in congenital hypothyroidism (author's transl)].

Puberty was studied in 95 patients with congenital hypothyroidism treated between 1953 and 1977 from the first months or first year of life. Pubertal abnormalities were observed in 13 cases: 1. Delayed puberty in 11 cases (late diagnosis in 6 cases, insufficient treatment in 2 cases, delayed puberty in the family in 1 case).