Abstract
Two organs of the human body undergo a remarkable reduction in size following birth, these are the uterus and the suprarenal glands. The neonatal loss in mass of the suprarenals seems to have been first noted by Scheel. 1 It is due in great part, if not entirely, to a degeneration of the inner and middle layers of the cortex. This process was first described by Starkel and Wegrzynowski 2 and, shortly after, independently by Thomas, 3 Kern, 4 and Armour and Elliott. 5
It has been pointed out that the neonatal loss in size of the uterus is preceded by a period of marked growth of this viscus in the latter part of fetal life, and that this neonatal involution reduces the organ to essentially the dimensions which would have obtained had the early fetal growth rate remained unchanged. Since the suprarenals undergo a neonatal involution which is concomitant with that of the uterus, it seems desirable to determine whether they also show a period of increased growth in the latter part of prenatal life.
The present study is based on observations on the weights of 1087 pairs of suprarenal glands; 425 of fetuses, 338 of newborn infants, stillborn or dying within 2 days after birth, and 324 of children over 2 days and under 1 year of age.
The course of growth of these structures is shown in the accompanying figure in which the suprarenal weight is plotted against the total body weight (as indicated on the base line scale) and the computed prenatal age and observed postnatal age, as indicated on the upper boundary line of the graph. The observations on fetal material indicate that the growth of the suprarenals before birth is proportional to the growth in body-weight for the relation between these weights is approximately rectilinear throughout the fetal period.
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