The Efficacy of Growth Hormone Therapy on Children with Growth Hormone Deficiency Treated with Recombinant Human Growth Hormone

Abstract

The use of growth hormone (GH) in clinical endocrine practice is expanding and its role in the treatment of various clinical conditions is increasingly appreciated. Concurrently, concerns have been raised about the ethnical, economic, safety and efficacy of growth hormone and this study in this direction. This study is conducted to determine the growth response to growth hormone(GH) therapy in growth hormone deficient patients(GHD) either partial or complete selected from those who registered in pediatric endocrinology clinic at Central Teaching Hospital for Children in Baghdad and the effect of other factors as age, gender, birth weight, chronological bone age…..etc.
A prospective study was conducted on 160 patients with age 3-12 years selected from 1400 patients with age 1-18 years registered in pediatric endocrinology clinic at central teaching hospital for children presented with short stature subjected to full physical examination preceded by medical history and accurate measurements including parents then they screened for causes of short stature including hormonal ,chromosomal and radiological assay to confirm the growth hormone deficiency after that treated with recombinant growth hormone from 1st June 2008 and 1st December 2008 during this period the patients followed monthly according to filing system. The height velocity before treatment was 3.5±1.2cm/y after 6 months of therapy was 8.5±3.6cm/y.There was no significant difference in the height velocity regarding the sex, age, partial or complete GHD and the degree of the bone age delay in contrast to birth weight which had significant positive correlation with height velocity response among of 160 patients 136 (85%) achieved adequate response. This study indicates a significant response in linear growth in patients with GHD after treatment with recombinant GH with positive relationship with birth weight so effort & resources needed to achieve availability of the drug, related equipments, laboratory tests & trained personnel. This study is preliminary one and we hope further expanded studies in this subject in the future.