Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33543731›Full record

ReviewEndocrine connections2021

Growth failure: 'idiopathic' only after a detailed diagnostic evaluation.

Robert Rapaport, Jan M Wit, Martin O Savage

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Endocrine connections, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.8field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Observational
  7. Current understanding and perspectives on growth and long-acting GH therapy in Japan.Clinical pediatric endocrinology : case reports and clinical investigations : official journal of the Japanese Society for Pediatric Endocrinology · 2025
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Challenges in Pediatric Endocrinology.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
    Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.

Robert RapaportDivision of Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes, Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
Jan M WitDepartment of Pediatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Martin O SavageCentre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-7902-3376
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · USLeiden University Medical Center · NLWilliam Harvey Research Institute · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The terms 'idiopathic short stature' (ISS) and 'small for gestational age' (SGA) were first used in the 1970s and 1980s. ISS described non-syndromic short children with undefined aetiology who did not have growth hormone (GH) deficiency, chromosomal defects, chronic illness, dysmorphic features or low birth weight. Despite originating in the pre-molecular era, ISS is still used as a diagnostic label today. The term 'SGA' was adopted by paediatric endocrinologists to describe children born with low birth weight and/or length, some of whom may experience lack of catch-up growth and present with short stature. GH treatment was approved by the FDA for short children born SGA in 2001, and by the EMA in 2003, and for the treatment of ISS in the US, but not Europe, in 2003. These approvals strengthened the terms 'SGA' and 'ISS' as clinical entities. While clinical and hormonal diagnostic techniques remain important, it is the emergence of genetic investigations that have led to numerous molecular discoveries in both ISS and SGA subjects. The primary message of this article is that the labels ISS and SGA are not definitive diagnoses. We propose that the three disciplines of clinical evaluation, hormonal investigation and genetic sequencing should have equal status in the hierarchy of short stature assessments and should complement each other to identify the true pathogenesis in poorly growing patients.

Indexed as

genotypinggrowth hormone therapyidiopathic short staturelinear growthshort staturesmall for gestational age

Identifiers

PMID33543731
PMCPMC8052574
OpenAlexW3129115660

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.