Children born with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) or small for gestational age: long-term growth and metabolic consequences. Endocr Regul 2000

IntraUterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) refers to insufficient fetal growth diagnosed either by two direct intrauterine growth assessment (ultra-sonography) or when the fetus or newborn length (height) is less than two standard deviations (or third percentile) bellow the mean for gestational age (NIKLASSON et al. 1991; DE ZEGLER 1997). When the fetus or newborn body size (weight or length) is insufficient for gestational age, that is less than 2 standard deviations bellow the mean (or third percentile) for gestation during the situation is referred to as Small for Gestational Age (SGA). Since both fetal weight and length (height) gains are closely related, there is much overlap between SGA and IUGR. The proportion of newborn with normal birth weight and overlap be-tween SGA and IUGR, isolated low birt weight, isolate low birth length and combined low birth weight and length is presented in Tab. 1, according to the most recent series reported nb NIKLASSON (1991). SGA/IUGR is a public health problem, since 2.5-3.0 % of newborns are affected by definition, and 8-10 % of then do not catch up postnataly, presenting with a persistent severe height deficien