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Clinical Trial
. 2012;78(1):18-23.
doi: 10.1159/000339679. Epub 2012 Jul 18.

Change in total body water as a predictive tool for growth hormone treatment response

Manon A B Ernst  1 , Michelle Y G Simons, Angèle J G M Gerver, Gladys R J Zandwijken, Luc J I Zimmermann, Willem-Jan M Gerver
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Change in total body water as a predictive tool for growth hormone treatment response

Manon A B Ernst et al. Horm Res Paediatr. 2012.

Abstract

Background/aims: To investigate whether short-term changes in body composition as a result of growth hormone therapy could be used to predict its growth effect after 1 year in children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) and children born small for gestational age (SGA).

Methods: 88 GHD children and 99 SGA children who started treatment with recombinant human growth hormone were included. Total body water (TBW) and height were measured. After 1 year, patients were divided into adequate and inadequate responders.

Results: In GHD and SGA children a sensitivity of 87 and 53%, respectively, and a specificity of 58 and 83%, respectively, were found. The positive predictive values for GHD and SGA children were 73 and 90%, respectively. The negative predictive values were 75 and 32%, respectively.

Conclusion: Changes in body composition data measured by TBW are a valuable tool to correctly predict 75% of the GHD children and are only useful in SGA children when the change in TBW is above the cut-off value of 0.7 l/m(2).

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