Somatic development disorders of children with non specific inflammatory bowel diseases
Pawłowska, K.; Iwańczak, B.
Developmental Period Medicine 18(3): 323-330
2014
ISSN/ISBN: 1428-345X PMID: 25182396 Document Number: 676585
Frequency of inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) tends to increase in developing countries. Nearly 25% of cases affects pediatric patients. Inflammatory bowel diseases are often associated with weight loss and stunting in children. Moreover, weight and height deficiencies are often early symptoms. Initially, nonspecific or latent course of disease delays the diagnostic process. Malnutrition in inflammatory bowel diseases can be caused by disorders of digestion and nutrients' absorption, intestinal loss, increased energy expenditure and appetite impairment. Nutritional deficiencies and inflammatory agents lead to disturbance of tissue metabolism - muscle and bone - and retardation of somatic development of affected children. Thus, deficiencies of muscle mass, bone mineral density and body height are observed. Insufficient normalization of somatic features may be the consequence of recurrent nature of disease and specificity of pharmacological treatment. Present work deals with the current state of knowledge concerning the somatic development disorders of children with inflammatory bowel diseases. Abnormal nutritional status, bone mineral density deficits and growth failure of patients have been discussed in the context of their relations and dependencies on inflammatory, nutritional and therapeutic factors.