成長障害を伴う内分泌疾患のスクリーニング法（WHAMES法）の考案 ： その学校検診における応用と有用性に関する検討

Abstract

It is necessary to make early diagnosis and proper treatment for every disease, and especially for endocrin diseases. Growth-affecting disorders will ensue, if such diseases are left untreated when young. I have seen many patients with serious disorders of endocrine origin who had been left untreated during their childhood. I examined why these patients were left untreated for long time. From these experiences, I devised a new screening method :(WHAMES method) by which school nurses might find such patients among many school children. After the first screening performed by school nurses, potential patients were sent to me for diagnosis. WHAMES method is the first screening method for endocrine disease using symptom markers consisting of weight, height, appearance, mentality, emotion and sextial developement. "WHAMES" is an acronym formed of the capital letters of the symptom markers. I performed mass-screening for endocrine diseases in cooperation with school nurses in Nara Prefecture from April, 1985 to April, 1987. School children (110,589) in 189 schools were examined. One hundred two children visited our university hospital. I examined them and found 10 cases of pituitary dwarfism, one case of diabetes insipidus due to pituitary tumor, 2 cases of Turner's syndrome, 2 cases of hyperthyroidism, one case of congenital adrenocortical hyperplasia due to 11β-OHase deficiency (mild form), one case of Kallmann's syndrome, and others. It is concluded that screening for endocrine, diseases is necessary for school children and that this new method will be useful for such screening as a routine periodic health check in school.