14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by a team of researchers from the Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia, found that there might be a connection between low birth weight and poor growth rate in children suffering from chronic kidney disease.
For most people, low birth weight is not a determining factor of poor growth and short stature later in life, but for kids suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD), the implications are somehow different.
In order to see whether there is a connection between poor growth rate and low birth weight in children with CKD the results from the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children Prospective Cohort (CKiD) study, were closely studied by Larry Greenbaum, MD, PhD and his colleagues from Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
This study furnished data on 586 children, out of which 426 had mild to moderate CKD and were hospitalized in 48 pediatric nephrology centers across North America.
Dr. Greenbaum says that “this is the first study showing an association between low birth weight and poor growth in children with CKD.
“The study also demonstrates that children with CKD are more likely to be born with low birth weight than the general population.
“This occurs in children who are born with kidney disease and those who acquire kidney disease during childhood.
“It is possible that low birth weight is a risk factor for the development of kidney disease during childhood.”
Still, the results of this study are not final because even if it shows that there is a link between low birth weight and poor growth rate, it does not prove that it is the low birth weight that causes poor growth.
Also, the team of researchers had no answer to why would low birth weight lead to poor growth in children suffering from CKD.
Before drawing any final conclusions, further research is necessary to see whether being born small increases the risk of developing kidney disease during childhood, or not.
This new study will appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).