Conditions: Hypothyroidism
Keywords: Hypothyroidism Growth hormone
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 16
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to see if giving growth hormone and Lupron along with thyroid hormone will improve final height in patients with long term hypothyroidism. Lupron is a medicine which is used to delay puberty and to prevent early closure of growing bones which might increase growth potential. Growth hormone is used to restore growth rate. This study will include children with "short term" and "long term" hypothyroidism.

Detailed description:
Hypothyroidism is often associated with growth failure. It takes several years for slow growth to be noticed. This growth retardation is typically severe and progressive.

Thyroid hormone is necessary for normal growth. Treatment with thyroxine (thyroid hormone) results in rapid catch-up growth, which mostly happens during the first 18 months. Growth is accompanied by increased bone age, which means early fusion (closure of the growing bones) of the bones and reduced growth potential. For example, a patient, who is 10 years old but has bone age of 12 years, has growth potential of a 12 year old and will stop growing 2 years earlier than a 10 year old patient. According to the literature, prolonged juvenile hypothyroidism (low thyroid condition) resulted in a permanent loss in height and only 70% catch-up growth was generally achieved with thyroxine replacement.

Arms:
arm 1: Group 1 will be treated only with Synthroid. arm 2: Group 2 will be treated with Growth hormone, synthroid, and lupron. arm 3: Group 3 will have acute hypothyroidism and will serve as controls.

Interventions: intervention 1: Growth hormone intervention 2: Growth hormone treatment and puberty
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Growth hormone + Synthroid + Lupron intervention 2: Lupron once a month and growth hormone daily

Protocol document: