Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Background: After recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) was introduced in the treatment of patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), many studies have addressed the effect of GH treatment and changes in the height standard deviation score (SDS) after GH treatment. Human growth hormone has been successfully used in children with GHD. Objectives: To determine impact of GH treatment on short term linear growth in the 1st year of therapy in children with isolated growth hormone deficiency following at Maadi Military Hospital endocrinology clinic aiming to identify the predictors of growth response. Results: The height velocity in the 1st year of GH treatment ranged from 5.0-9.5 cm with mean ± SD 6.2 ±1.3 cm and the SDS value ranged from -5.6 to -1.3 with mean ± SD -2.4 ± 1.3. Correlation analysis showed that the change in height SDS in the 1st year had a significant positive correlation with basal height SDS (r= 0.982, p= 0.001) which was evident in both pre-pubertal and pubertal groups but it was negatively correlated with both chronological age (r= -0.847, p=0.016) and bone age (r=-0.865, p= 0.012) in the pubertal group only. Conclusion: Growth velocity in the 1st year of GH treated children with GHD in the current study was positively correlated with height SDS at start of treatment and was negatively correlated with chronological age and bone age as was shown in the pubertal group so the early administration of GH therapy lead to pronounced acceleration in linear growth during the first year of treatment. Statistical significance of other studied variables which affect growth velocity (starting GH dose, BA delay and peak GH level) was precluded due to small sample size

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