Malabsorption syndrome with polynutrientional failure, typical for the manifested celiac disease influences negatively on physical development of most of the children. Very often low level of physical development is the most important indication for a child’s examination where we can identify the existence of unmanifested clinical picture of the celiac disease.
The aim of the paper is the analysis of the regularities offormation of children’s growth retardation and body weight deficiency who had the celiac disease first diagnosed according to their age and the length of latent period of the disease.
Methods and materials. The anthropometric indicator analysis of 207 children at the age 9 months till 17 years has shown that we can observe pronounced reduction in body weight against the background of a moderate growth retardation during the first two years of the disease. With duration of the disease course over 2 years, backlog of growth rates is distinct and reaches the maximum with disease manifestation over 5 years.
Data of children’s physical development with newly diagnosed celiac disease differ significantly depending on the age, verification and duration of the disease symptoms. For children of pre-preschool and preschool age body weight deficiency is more pathognomonic symptom, which characterizes the presence of the celiac disease.
Children of school age with late-diagnosed celiac disease acquire growth retardation, reaching of more than in half of patients the degree of somatogenic nanizm which is the leading anthropometric characteristics.
Early diagnosis of the celiac disease must be based on careful analysis of the clinical symptoms, where analysis of the rate of physical development and compulsory serological screening play the main role in a group of children of preschool age with body weight deficiency and in a group of patients of school age with growth retardation and nanism of non-endocrine origin.