Birth length and weight in congenital adrenal hyperplasia according to the different phenotypes

The aims of this study were to: (1) retrospectively investigate the birth length and weight of our patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH); (2) compare these parameters with standards for birth length and weight recently assessed in an Italian control population; (3) evaluate whether neonatal auxological data may change depending on the different clinical forms of CAH. Birth length and weight were retrospectively evaluated in 101 children with different clinical forms of CAH and compared with standards for birth length and weight assessed in an Italian control population. In both sexes the average birth length of patients with classical CAH was greater than the mean birth length of the controls, and both length and weight were greater in children with classical CAH than in those with the non-classical form. Among the patients with classical CAH, those with the salt-wasting form were longer but also weighed less than those with the simple-virilizing form. Conclusions: (1) fetal length velocity in patients with CAH may be increased only in those infants with classical forms of the syndrome, while it is unaffected in those with the non-classical form; (2) the greater the enzymatic activity impairment, the longer the birth length of newborns with CAH.