[Did growth hormone-deficient children grow up to normal adult height by growth hormone treatment?]

Abstract

One of the important aims of growth hormone (GH) treatment in GH deficient children is to allow them to grow to their full genetic potential. Usually, however, the final height of GH deficient children does not reach normal adult height and is below their target height. Furthermore, isolated GHD with spontaneous puberty is known to lead to a shorter adult height than that obtained in GHD associated with gonadotropin deficiency. The height at the start of puberty is reported to be well correlated with final height in GHD. Therefore, when isolated GHD subjects treated with GH reached puberty while they were still shorter than normal, they ended up by being shorter than normal as adults. The trial to increase the GH dose during puberty did not seem to increase the final height. The gonadal suppression therapy combined with GH treatment significantly increased the final height in isolated GHD. It is now the consensus that insufficient height at the onset of puberty leads to short final height and that early diagnosis of GHD is thus important to allow catch-up growth to optimal height before puberty. It may also be beneficial to treat GHD with higher doses to overcome the waning phenomenon with GH treatment.