Assessment of Growth Differentiation Factor-15 in Egyptian Children with Congenital Heart Disease
/ 0
- Details
- Category: Vol. 93, March 2025
- Hits: 26
Assessment of Growth Differentiation Factor-15 in Egyptian Children with Congenital Heart Disease, MONA M.I. ELGANZORY, SALAH M.M. IBRAHIM, OMNIA M.A. SHAFEI and MOHAMED S.A. RATEB
Abstract
Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of congenital anomalies accounting for 8/1000 live birth. CHD can have a wide range of impacts on a child’s health and well-being. Faltering growth is prevalent in up to 66% of children with CHD.
Aim of Study: This study aims to measure the serum level of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) in children with congenital heart disease, evaluate the association between ele-vated serum level of GDF15 in children with CHD and faltering growth.
Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted at Children Hospital, Pediatric Cardiology unit, Ain Shams University from July 2023 to April 2024. Sixty children were selected 12 to 60 months of age with any congen-ital heart disease excluding those with syndromic abnormali-ties, other congenital anomalies, decompensated children with heart failure. All patients’ cardiac diagnoses were made based on clinical and laboratory examinations, radiological methods, electrocardiography, and echocardiography. Anthropometric measures including weight, height, weight for age Z score, height for age Z score and body mass index were performed to all patients and serum level of GDF-15 was measured for each child.
Results: Our findings revealed that there was a statistically significant increase in GDF-15 level in patients with faltering growth than patients without faltering growth. Our ROC curve analysis shows that the best cutoff point or serum GDF-15 lev-el to differentiate between patients with and without faltering growth was >879 (pg/ml) with sensitivity 94.12%, specificity 92.31%, and area under curve (AUC) of 0.933.
Conclusion: We concluded that GDF-15 levels are signifi-cantly increase in children with concomitant CHD and faltering growth than in those CHD children with normal body weight.