Growth parameters and insulin like growth factor-1: Comparison between cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart disease and normal children

Abstract

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have been reported show significant growth retardation. Also it seems that low insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1) levels could in CHD patients cause growth retardation, but the etiology of growth retardation in the patients with CHD is still unclear. In this study we aim to compare IGF-1 levels in cyanotic and acyanotic CHD patients and evaluate its correlation with growth parameters. sixty children with congenital heart disease (30 cyanotic and 30 acyanotic patients) and 30 healthy children were studied. Demographic findings, blood oxygen saturation, left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) and IGF-1 levels were compared between groups. LVEF was significantly higher in control group than other groups (p=0.04) and blood oxygen saturation and IGF-1 was significantly lower in cyanotic group than other groups (both, p<0.001). There was significant positive correlation between IGF-1 and blood oxygen saturation (r=0.45, p<0.001), IGF-1 and age (r=0.63, p<0.001), IGF-1 and BMI (r=0.40, p<0.001), IGF-1 and height (r=0.37, p<0.001) and IGF-1 and head circumference (r=0.44, p<0.001). The positive correlation between IGF-1 and growth parameters as well as low IGF-1 levels in cyanotic patients in comparison to acyanotic patients and healthy children are indicative of malnutrition and growth retardation in these patients which could be due to chronic hypoxemia considering lower blood oxygen saturation in these patients.