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Inhaled corticosteroid therapy, the first line of control for children with persistent asthma, is thought to decrease linear growth by up to 1 cm in the first year of use. Some studies suggest catch-up growth occurs after this initial period, while others show a decrease in final adult height of up to 1 cm (NEJM Journal Watch Pediatr Adolesc Med Oct 2012 and N Engl J Med 2012 Sep 3; [e-pub]). But height velocity seems to suffer only during the first year, without any cumulative effect from ongoing therapy. Is this because an overall decrease in medication compliance limits further growth suppression? To find out, researchers in the Netherlands studied 99 children with asthma (age range, 2 to 13 years) who had used low- to medium-dose inhale…