1. The role of growth hormone therapy in Turner syndrome.
- Author
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Sas TCJ and Keizer-Schrama SMP
- Abstract
Most girls with Turner syndrome (TS) are short in childhood as well as in adulthood. Much of the deficit in height is caused by haploinsufficiency of the short-stature homeobox-containing gene (SHOX) located on the X-chromosome. Although girls with TS are not growth hormone (GH) deficient, treatment with biosynthetic recombinant human GH accelerates height velocity and increases adult height. There are several factors which may influence the effect of GH treatment, particularly age and height at start, GH dose and injection frequency, (non-) compliance, genetic factors, the addition of oxandrolone, and the estrogen dose regimen and timing of puberty induction. Overall, the safety profile of this treatment is good, however long-term follow-up of the girls after the use of supraphyiological GH doses for many years is warranted. Although our general experience is that most girls seem to be happy with a normal height after long-term GH treatment, at this moment, there is lack of evidence for a beneficial effect of GH treatment on well-being of patients with TS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008