Letters to the Editor: Severe Acute Renal Failure Due to Hemoglobinuria After Use of WinRho for the Treatment of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura
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Letters to the Editor Assessing Growth Patterns To the editor: Drs. Chen and Shiffmanl should be thanked for reminding us that practitioners are inconsis- tent in filling out growth charts and in documenting abnormali- ties in growth. We agree that this is an area for quality improvement. We recommend one further improvement: the use of the weight-for-height graph on the back of growth charts in common use at present. This graph enables one to assess whether a child is thin or fat. It improves one's ac- curacy in detecting failure to thrive and obesity. Indeed, one of the chief purposes of revising the CDC growth charts2 has been to include the body mass index, a measure of overweight, for chil- dren over age 2 years. Our anecdotal impression is that many practitioners skip the weight-for-height graph. We en- courage them to use it routinely.3 Peter Dawson, MD Daniel B. Kessler; MD 1057 Columbia Place Boulder, CO 80303 REFERENCES 1. Chen RS, Shiffman RN. Assessing growth patterns-routine but some- times overlooked. Clin Pediatr 2000; 39:97-102. 2. National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention. CDC growth charts: United States. 2000, http://www.cdc.gov/ growthcharts/. 3. Kessler DB,