serum insulin like growth factor-1(IGF-1) levels in healthy children and adolescents, and its association with height velocity, chronological age and bone age: a one year, longitudinal study

The growth hormone-IGF-1 axis serves as a central endocrine governing growth and development in children and adolescents. During childhood, IGF-1 levels demonstrate a gradual increase with age, undergo a rapid surge during puberty. Many factors influencing IGF-1 levels, include genetics, age, sex, hormonal, environmental factors and puberty. Relying solely on chronological age based reference values for IGF-1 may not yield accurate assessments. serum IGF-1 levels serve as a direct reflection of growth hormone activity and overall nutritional status of an individual thereby making a valuable biomarker of malnutrition. Hence various diseases, chronic malnutrition, hormone deficiency and turner syndrome. Understanding the correlation between serum IGF-1 levels and parameters such as height velocity, chronological age, and bone age becomes imperative for a comprehensive evaluation of paediatric growth dynamics. Bone age an indicator of biological development, representing the degree of physiological maturity, being strongly associated with the pubertal growth spurt, secondary sexual development and menarche, often elevate with advanced IGF-1 levels. Timing and variability of pubertal progression accurate assessment of IGF-1 levels to chronological age and bone age becomes paramount. Correlation between serum IGF-1 levels and bone age has been the topic of interest amongst researchers. Thought many studies have undertaken on correlation of IGF-1 levels and chronological age, limited research exist on the correlation of IGF-1 level with chronological age, bone age and height velocity. Moreover, most correlation data pertains to population of western world which may not be relevant for our population. Our study intends to fill the knowledge gap by comprehensively studying serum IGF-1 levels in relation to bone age, chronological age, and height velocity comprising of Indian ethnicity-based data.