en Pediatrics Pediatrics Original Article Original Article <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height:14pt"><b><i><span style="color:blue">Background</span></i></b><i><span style="color:blue">:</span></i> Growth retardation is a long-term complication in pediatric transfusion-dependent thalassemias (TDTs), presented as short-stature and upper body segment shortening. The cause of this condition was chronic hypoxia, iron overload, endocrinopathy, inadequate transfusion, and iron chelation. We analyze the relationship between ferritin level and growth status of pediatric TDTs.</span><br> <span style="line-height:14pt"><b><i><span style="color:blue">Methods:</span></i></b> This was a cross-sectional study on pediatric TDTs aged 2-18 years old at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital Surabaya, Indonesia conducted in 2020. They required blood transfusion every 2-4 weeks. We evaluated the ratio of upper/lower body segments, weight for age Z-score (WAZ), height for age Z-score (HAZ), and body mass index (BMI) Z-score, based on CDC growth chart as growth status parameters. Serum ferritin was checked every three months to determine iron overload and iron chelation (deferiprone, deferasirox and deferoxamine). We used Spearman correlation and Mann-Whitney U test to analyze between variables (&alpha;=0.05).<span style="font-size:10.0pt"></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:14pt"><b><i><span style="color:blue">Results:</span></i></b> We enrolled 15/29 males with median age 10.5 years. Serum Ferritin had negative correlation with the ratio of upper/lower body segments (rho=-0.552; P=0.002), but not for HAZ (rho=-0.078; P=0.694), WAZ (rho=-0.186; P=0.342), BMI Z-score (rho=-0.089; P=0.653) especially if serum ferritin was above 2500 &micro;/L. In deferiprone group (n=8), the WAZ (P=0.034) and BMI Z-score (P=0.031) were lower; but the ratio of upper/lower body segments was greater (P=0.039) than the deferasirox group.<span style="font-size:10.0pt"></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:14pt"><b><i><span style="color:blue">Conclusion</span></i></b><i><span style="color:blue">:</span></i> Growth retardation was more visible in pediatric TDTs with high ferritin and in deferiprone group. The height and the ratio of upper/lower body segments of the body were more affected.<span style="font-size:10.0pt"></span></span></span></span> pediatric transfusion-dependent-thalassemia, serum ferritin, iron chelation, growth retardation 425 432 http://caspjim.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2607-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Andi Cahyadi andimblitar@yahoo.com 100319475328460042956 100319475328460042956 Yes Department of Child Health, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia I Dewa Gede Ugrasena ugrasena56@gmail.com 100319475328460042957 100319475328460042957 No Department of Child Health, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia Mia Ratwita Andarsini mia-r-a@fk.unair.ac.id 100319475328460042958 100319475328460042958 No Department of Child Health, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia Maria Christina Shanty Larasati mariachristinasl@yahoo.com 100319475328460042959 100319475328460042959 No Department of Child Health, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia Raden Muhammad Zulfan Jauhari radenzulfan.rz@gmail.com 100319475328460042960 100319475328460042960 No Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia Diah Kusuma Arumsari dka.diah@gmail.com 100319475328460042961 100319475328460042961 No Department of Child Health, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga/Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, East Java Indonesia