Anthropometric data relating to normal and scoliotic Scandinavian girls.

The increase in height and weight and the age at the menarche have been determined in girls with idiopathic scoliosis and in age-matched normal girls. The scoliotic girls were classified according to the position of the curve. The menarche was found to occur significantly later in girls with either a thoracolumbar or a double primary curve than in the control group; it was also significantly later in those two groups combined than in the girls with a right convex thoracic curve. At the time of the menarche, the girls with a thoracolumbar or a double primary curve were significantly taller than those in the control group. The girls with a double primary curve, and these together with girls with a thoracolumbar curve, were also significantly taller than those with a right convex thoracic curve. Those in the control group were significantly heavier, and in some age groups significantly taller, than children born during the period 1953-1958 and providing earlier Swedish research data. The average age at the menarche did not differ from that for a normal population for this country. The observed differences between the group with a right convex thoracic curve and that with a thoracolumbar or a double primary curve indicate that the pathomechanism, and even the etiology, may vary with the form of idiopathic scoliosis.