ABSTRACT
There are numerous causes of short stature (Lifshitz & Cervantes, 1996). A breakdown by
diagnosis of children referred to pediatric endocrinologists for a growth evaluation suggests that
approximately half exhibit normal variants of short stature (i.e., height that falls below the con-
ventional cutoff of-2.0 height standard deviations [SDs]), but show normal growth increments
that parallel growth channels for the general population (Lifshitz & Cervantes, 1996; Sand-
berg, Brook, & Campos, 1994). In the category of pathological causes of short stature, growth
hormone deficiency (GHD) stands out as a key endocrinologically based cause of poor growth.
