Abstract

The surveillance of growth and pubertal development plays an integral role in the health maintenance of all children. For children with disabilities, including cerebral palsy (CP), there is little scientific data on nutrition, growth, and maturation. This proposal's hypotheses are: a) the timing and tempo of sexual maturation in children with CP differs from the normal population, and b) nutritional and hormonal mechanisms are responsible for these differences in sexual maturation.
The specific aims of the study are: 1) To determine the interactions among nutrition, adiposity, hormones, and the onset and progression of puberty in children wit moderate-severe CP; 2) To determine the changes in nutritional status, linear growth, sexual maturation, and skeletal maturation over one year in a representative sample of children with CP; and 3) To compare the onset and progression of puberty and the hormonal influences controlling these processes in children with CP to a reference group of normally growing children in a cross sectional and longitudinal matched-pairs design.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32HD008615-02
Application #
6402675
Study Section
Endocrinology Study Section (END)
Program Officer
Nitkin, Ralph M
Project Start
2001-08-01
Project End
Budget Start
2001-08-01
Budget End
2002-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$49,412
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
University of Virginia
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
001910777
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904

  Publications

Gurka, Matthew J; Kuperminc, Michelle N; Busby, Marjorie G et al. (2010) Assessment and correction of skinfold thickness equations in estimating body fat in children with cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol 52:e35-41
Henderson, Richard C; Berglund, Lisa M; May, Ryan et al. (2010) The relationship between fractures and DXA measures of BMD in the distal femur of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. J Bone Miner Res 25:520-6
Kuperminc, Michelle N; Gurka, Matthew J; Houlihan, Christine M et al. (2009) Puberty, statural growth, and growth hormone release in children with cerebral palsy. J Pediatr Rehabil Med 2:131-41
Stevenson, Richard D; Conaway, Mark; Barrington, John W et al. (2006) Fracture rate in children with cerebral palsy. Pediatr Rehabil 9:396-403
Stevenson, Richard D; Conaway, Mark; Chumlea, W Cameron et al. (2006) Growth and health in children with moderate-to-severe cerebral palsy. Pediatrics 118:1010-8