Absence of IgA and growth hormone deficiency associated with short arm deletion of chromosome 18.

Absence of IgA and growth hormone deficiency associated with short arm deletion of chromosome 18We report a boy with short stature, minor somatic anomalies, slight mental retardation, deficiency of immunoglobulin IgA, and deficient growth hormone (GH) secretion.He has only 45 chromosomes, with a translocation involving the pairs 13 and 18, resulting in a short arm deletion of chromosome 18, as demonstrated by a modified Giemsa staining technique (Sumner, Evans, and Buckland, 1971).Case report The boy, now 12 years old, was born to a 39-year-old mother and 43-year-old father.Both parents and the 14-year-old brother are healthy and of average height.No other cases of growth failure are known in the family.The baby was delivered in brow presentation, after a long second stage of labour of 55 minutes.Respiration was rapid during the first week, but there was no other evidence for brain lesion.The boy walked at 1-6 years, spoke a few words at 2-4 years and sentences at 6 years.He began school in a special class for slow learners at 7 years, because on July 13,