7/28/2019 04-Effect of Growth Hormone Treatment on the Adult Height

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Vol ume 343 Nu mb er 13 923

EFFECT OF GROWTH HORMONE TREATMENT ON THE ADULT HEIGHT OF CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE

EFFECT OF GROWTH HORMONE TREATMENT ON THE ADULT HEIGHTOF CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE

D

IETER

H

AFFNER

, M.D., F

RANZ

S

CHAEFER

, M.D., R

ICHARD

N

ISSEL

, M.D., E

LKE

W

HL

, M.D., B

URKHARD

T

NSHOFF

, M.D.,AND

O

TTO

M

EHLS

, M.D., FOR

THE

G

ERMAN

S

TUDY

G

ROUP

FOR

G

ROWTH

H

ORMONE

T

REATMENT

IN

C

HRONIC

R

ENAL

F

AILURE

*

A

BSTRACT

Background

Growth hormone treatment stimu-lates growth in short children with chronic renal fail-ure. However, the extent to which this therapy in-creases final adult height is not known.

Methods

We followed 38 initially prepubertal chil-dren with chronic renal failure treated with growthhormone for a mean of 5.3 years until they reachedtheir final adult height. The mean (SD) age at thestart of treatment was 10.42.2 years, the mean boneage was 7.12.3 years, and the mean height was3.11.2 SD below normal. Fifty matched children withchronic renal failure who were not treated with growthhormone served as controls.

Results

The children treated with growth hormonehad sustained catch-up growth, whereas the controlchildren had progressive growth failure. The meanfinal height of the growth hormonetreated childrenwas 165 cm for boys and 156 cm for girls. The meanfinal adult height of the growth hormonetreated chil-dren was 1.61.2 SD below normal, which was 1.4SD above their standardized height at base line (P