Long-term dwarfing effects of corticosteroid treatment for childhood nephrosis.

Children with the idiopathic nephrotic syndrome have been treated with intensive steroid therapy at various centres since prednisolone became available in 1955. Five years after onset, 65-70% of such children are free from significant proteinuria, and the death rate has been reduced to 10-15% by such therapy (Arneil and Lam, 1966; Cornfeld and Schwartz, 1966). Serious untoward effects, such as those from cortisone recorded by Good, Vernier, and Smith (1957), were uncommon with prednisolone. An important side-effect of prolonged steroid therapy is inhibition of growth (Blodgett et al., 1956; Fleisher, McCrory, and Rapoport, 1960; Falliers et al., 1963). The purpose of this study is to review the growth pattern of a number of nephrotic children who have been followed up for 5 to 10 years after intensive steroid therapy.