Abstract
The mandate of the ITF was defined in order to determine the outcome in terms of final height attainment in short normal children of normal birth weight who have been treated continuously with GH for at least three years. After considerable discussion, the ITF developed a questionnaire for this purpose, which was provided to all investigators who had indicated by preliminary survey that they had data that could be made available for analysis. Several significant issues were recognized that would make data collection and analysis difficult. These included the limited number of children who have attained final height, the influence of puberty onset occurring during GH therapy, the enormously variable protocols that have been employed with both pituitary-extracted and biosynthetic growth hormone, the absence of a suitable control group that would span the genetic heterogeneity of the study populations, and the interruption of therapy in some children as a result of the CJD crisis in 1985. Data analysis will include initial bone age (BA) and mid-parental height to assess genetic potential, one-year pre-treatment growth velocity (GV) to determine height SDS at onset, height attained at two years after initiation of continuous therapy, and final height attained after at least a total of three years of GH therapy (BA fused and/or GV < 2 cm/yr.). Historical controls will be developed from untreated normal short stature children who have reached adult height by analysis of databases in several countries, including Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. A comparative analysis will also be made of those children with the diagnosis of GHD that have been treated with GH and attained final height, but who retest as ‘normal’ following discontinuation of GH therapy. It is anticipated that this task force will be able to provide at least a preliminary final height outcome statement in regard to short children who have received growth hormone for a significant period of their childhood. It will also recommend that a similar analysis be conducted in the future in regard to psychological and educational outcome variables in these children.
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Guyda, H. FINAL HEIGHT ATTAINMENT IN NORMAL CHILDREN WITH SHORT STATURE TREATED WITH GROWTH HORMONE. Pediatr Res 33 (Suppl 5), S10 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199305001-00044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199305001-00044
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