Growth And Maturation In Children With Autism

患有自闭症和自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童在社交、言语和非言语交流以及对感觉刺激的反应方面存在缺陷。虽然自闭症的原因尚不清楚，但几项研究表明，患有自闭症和自闭症的儿童患巨头症的比例很高，而且似乎比普通人群的平均身高更高。自闭症儿童的生长模式和成熟标志尚未得到详细研究。脱氢表雄酮硫酸酯(脱氢表雄酮-S)是肾上腺成熟的标志，在儿童早期很低，但在生长中期(大约6-8岁)会增加。在之前的一项研究中，自闭症儿童的脱氢表雄酮-S浓度似乎高于正常对照组，这引发了人们的疑问，即自闭症儿童早期脱氢表雄酮-S的升高可能与头部和身体较大有关。其他评估自闭症儿童成熟度的方法，如骨龄，还没有被探索过。我们将使用横断面数据从三个方面评估自闭症/自闭症儿童的生长和成熟：1)4-8岁自闭症/自闭症儿童的身高、体重、体重指数和头围将与发育正常的年龄、性别和种族匹配的对照组进行比较；2)DHEA-S水平将自闭症/自闭症儿童与相同的发育正常对照组进行比较；以及3)自闭症/自闭症/自闭症儿童的骨龄与参考人群进行比较。目前正在从一家诊所招募病例儿童，那里有大量自闭症儿童。对照儿童被招募到一家门诊外科机构，在那里进行扁桃体/腺样体切除手术。几乎所有(96%)的目标病例数和70%的对照对象都已招募。

Children with autism and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) suffer from defects in socialization, verbal and nonverbal communication, and response to sensory stimuli. While the cause of autism is unknown, children with autism and ASD have been noted in several studies to have a high prevalence of macrocephaly and appear to be taller on average than the general population. Growth patterns and markers of maturation in autistic children have not been studied in detail. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), a marker for adrenal maturation, is low in early childhood but increases during the mid-growth spurt (about age 6-8). DHEA-S concentration appeared to be elevated in autistic children compared with normal controls in one previous study, raising questions about the possibility that early elevations of DHEA-S in autistic children may be associated with large head and body size. Other methods of assessing maturation in autistic children, such as bone age, have not been explored. We will use cross-sectional data to assess growth and maturation of children with autism/ASD in 3 ways: 1) the height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and head circumference children with autism/ASD between 4 and 8 years of age will be compared with developmentally normal age-, gender-, and race-matched controls, 2) DHEA-S levels children with autism/ASD will be compared with the same developmentally normal controls, and 3) bone age in children with autism/ASD will be compared with reference populations. Case children are currently being recruited from a clinic where a large number of autistic children are seen. Control children are being recruited at an outpatient surgery facility where tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy procedures are performed. Nearly all (96%) of the target number of cases and 70% of the control subjects have been recruited.