ESPE Abstracts

Background: Bronchiectasis is a result of recurrent pulmonary infections and chronic inflammation.

Objective and hypotheses: Chronic inflammation may lead some endocrinological disorders. The consequences of the bronchiectasis on the endocrinological system and on the bone health in childhood were investigated in this study.

Method: The medical records of the 64 children with bronchiectasis (32 females and 32 males) at the mean age of 11.12±3.21 were investigated retrospectively.

Results: The ratio of the children with short stature was only 7.8% (n=5/64), but the ratio of the children who had worse height status than their target height z-score (target height z-score-current height z-score>0.5) was 25%. According to Gomez classification 17.5% of the children had mild and 4.8% of the children had moderate or severe malnutrition. Girls’ and boys’ mean ages at the pubertal stage 2 were 9.45±0.48 and 11.78±055 years old respectively. There were not any cases of retarded or precocious puberty. Four of the 64 children had subclinic hypothyroidism (6.2%) and five children (7.8%) had lower serum cortisol levels than 5 μcg/dl. Assessment of bone mineral density revealed that the ratio of osteoporosis and osteopenia were 23.1% (9/39) and 30.8% (12/39). Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency ratio were 14.1% (9/58) and 51.7% (30/58) respectively.

Conclusion: Children with bronchiectasis may have some endocrinological complications such as failure of thrive and osteoporosis. Therefore, evaluation of the nutritional status, bone health status and the endocrinological system should be considered to the children with bronchiectasis.