Definition – from when does one speak of high growth?
In the medical field, we speak of a high growth when the person is above the 97th percentile in terms of height – i.e. belongs to the largest 3%. Percentiles are growth curves for specific age groups and indicate the normal distribution in the population. In real body sizes this means that a man of 18 years with a body length over 192cm and a woman of 18 years over 178cm can be spoken of high growth. An erroneously frequently used definition equates high growth with the accelerated growth of a person e.g. in puberty. However, this has nothing to do with high growth, since it is not defined by the increase in body length per time.
Causes
The first reason for the large growth is the genetic or family imprint. As described in the definition, high growth comprises the largest 3% of men or women. This means that high growth does not necessarily have to be pathological, but can be a completely normal condition.
For example, if the parents were already very tall, the children tend to grow to the same height or even taller. In addition to the non-pathological cause, however, there are a number of genetic syndromes that are characterized by high growth or in which high growth is one of the symptoms. Diseases of endocrine nature (of the endocrine system), which include hypergrowth, include pituitary gigantism, acromegaly, adrenogenital syndrome, pubertas praecox and hyperthyroidism.
Learn more about this under: Puberty Another group of causes are the numerical chromosomal aberrations. Here, there is an incorrect number of gonosomes (the chromosomes X and Y). These include the Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY), as well as the XYY (47) and XXX (47) syndrome.
There is also the group of genetic syndromes. Here, there are further syndrome-specific abnormalities in addition to the high growth. Important to mention here are the Marfan-, the Sotos-, the Wiedemann-Beckwith-, as well as the Martin-Bell-Syndrome.
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