GH therapy can increase short-term growth and improve ( near ) final height .
Increases in height are such that treated individuals remain relatively short when compared with peers of normal stature .
BACKGROUND Idiopathic short stature ( ISS ) refers to children who are very short compared with their peers for unknown or hereditary reasons .
Recombinant human growth hormone ( GH ) has been used to increase growth and final height in children with ISS .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of recombinant human GH on short-term growth and final height in children with ISS .
Growth of short normal children in puberty treated for 3 years with growth hormone alone or in association with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist.
GH , 0.1 IU/kg/day 6 days/week , was given to 30 early pubertal short patients for 3 years . There were 16 males , aged 14.4 + /- 0.8 years , and 14 females , aged 12.2 + /- 1.2 years , at pubertal stage 2 or 3 with slow growth ( 4.2 + /- 1.2 cm/year ) and no detected GH insufficiency or other cause for short stature . They were r and omized in 2 groups : group A with GH alone , and group B with GH and a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist during the first 2 years . 28 of the 30 patients completed 3 years of treatment . The annual growth rate increased during the 1st year in both groups and sexes , the increase being significant ( p < 0.01 ) in group A only . Patients of group A kept an improved growth velocity in the 2nd year , then returned to pretreatment growth rate in the 3rd year , while completing their sexual development and bone maturation . Their height , expressed as st and ard deviation score ( SDS ) for bone age , improved in the first 2 years , but decreased thereafter . Group B patients returned to pretreatment growth velocity in the 2nd year , and had no significant improvement in growth rate in the 3rd year with GH alone . Their bone maturation , slow when on the GnRH agonist , accelerated when sexual development resumed . At the end of the 3 years , height , expressed as SDS for age , improved in group A from -2.5 + /- 0.6 to -1.5 + /- 0.4 in males ( p < 0.05 ) and from -2.8 + /- 0.5 to -2.1 + /- 0.9 in females ( NS ) . ( ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS
GH therapy can increase short-term growth and improve ( near ) final height .
Increases in height are such that treated individuals remain relatively short when compared with peers of normal stature .
BACKGROUND Idiopathic short stature ( ISS ) refers to children who are very short compared with their peers for unknown or hereditary reasons .
Recombinant human growth hormone ( GH ) has been used to increase growth and final height in children with ISS .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of recombinant human GH on short-term growth and final height in children with ISS .