ESPE Abstracts

Background: Small gestational age (SGA) is defined by a small size and/or a birth weight <−2 DS/standards for the term of pregnancy. Most of these children catch up to their size in the first 2 years of life. Only 10% of them will stay with a size of <−2 DS. These children may benefit from treatment with GH, which improves their stature prognosis.

Objective and hypotheses: Study the final height of children with IUGR have reached adulthood and treated by GHR.

Method: 30 children with average age of 8.5 years for females and 9.5 for males at diagnosis were treated with GH (average dose of 0.045 mg/kg per day) to achieve the adulthood. These children were compared to a similar group of 36 children with the same disease and untreated.

Results: The mean size at diagnosis was −3.5 DS/TC and −4.5 DS/M (Sempé). After treatment for 4 years (on average) adult height was −2 DS/TC and −3 DS/M in children against −2.9 DS in the non-treated group, the difference was significant (P=0.005). The height gain in adulthood with the GHr was 1.5 against 0.6 DS. DS in the non-treated group (P=0.002). The age at puberty similar in both groups was successful.

Conclusion: Despite a delay in diagnosis and treatment initiation by GHr, results on final height are satisfactory. The effectiveness of the GHr in children with SGA is well established. Early introduction of treatment to éfficace dose allows normalisation of the size of children to adulthood. Puberty is not affected by the GH.