analysis of the potential for height growth at different stages of puberty based on bone age in healthy girls

Background: many parents are concerned about their child’s final height with the onset of the larche. we decided to investigate the height potential in different stages of puberty.method: 731 healthy girls who had not yet completed puberty were studied. bone age and predicted final height were assessed. the correlation of height potential with various indices has been investigated.results: the mean age was 9.88±1.3 years. the girls have a mean height potential of 28.90, 25.64, 20.89, and 13.76 cm in thelarche stages of 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively (p =0.001), and a mean heightpotential of 27.19, 21.46, 15.51 and 11.02 cm in pubarche stages of 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively (p=0.001). height potential was inversely related to pubarche stage (p-value =0.004) , chronological age (r = 0.74, p-value =0.001), bone age (p-value <0.001) and height standard deviation score (sds) (p<0.001). it was not related to the thelarche stage, target height, or bmi sds. linear regression showed that the height potential has a significant relationship with pubarche stage (p=0.004) but not with the thelarche stage ((p=0.267).conclusion: this study found that potential height has no significant relationship with the thelarche stage. on the other hand, pubarche is associated with advanced bone age and lower height potential.