1. Are factors at diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency in childhood associated with persistence of growth hormone deficiency into adult life?
- Author
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Banerjee I, Tudorancea A, Scanlon MF, and Gregory JW
- Subjects
- Adult, Child, Early Diagnosis, Female, Forecasting, Growth drug effects, Growth Disorders drug therapy, Human Growth Hormone therapeutic use, Humans, Hypopituitarism drug therapy, Male, Prognosis, Retrospective Studies, Time Factors, Treatment Outcome, Growth Disorders pathology, Growth Hormone deficiency, Hypopituitarism pathology
- Abstract
A proportion of children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) have persistence of GHD as young adults. To date, no markers have been shown in childhood to have predictive value in determining persistence of GHD into adult life. We examined the hypothesis in 31 patients that variables present at the time of diagnosis of childhood-onset GHD, or those related to the early response to growth hormone (GH) therapy, are associated with the likelihood of persistence of GHD. The results show that, as previously demonstrated, children with GHD are more likely to have persistent severe GHD in adult life when the diagnosis is associated with other pituitary hormone deficiencies (p = 0.02), abnormal pituitary neuroimaging (p = 0.003), induced puberty (p = 0.001), early age of diagnosis (p = 0.03) and lower peak GH response at the first dynamic GH test in childhood (p = 0.02). However, there are no associations of persistent severe GHD with the pattern of pretreatment growth or growth response to GH treatment in the initial phase.
- Published
- 2005
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