ESPE Abstracts

Background: GH therapy is used to treat a series of growth disorders in childhood. No recent studies are available in our country regarding the influence of GH after more than 1 year of treatment in children with growth failure.

Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study is to evaluate the effects of GH treatment and to find out if there is any relationship between IGF1 increment and growth velocity (GV), weight, and BMI in children with growth failure caused by GH deficiency, Turner syndrome and those born small for gestational age.

Method: Type of study: retrospective; target population: children 3–16 of age with short stature; sample: composed of 45 children (group 1) with short stature diagnosed in Mures County Hospital and treated 1 year with GH; 29 children (group 2) continued the treatment until 2 years. Variables: age, sex, height SDS (H-SDS), GV, weight, BMI, and IGF1 before, after 1 year, and after 2 years of treatment. Statistical analysis used Microsoft Office Excel.

Results: In our study GH treatment increased the H-SDS (first group: from −3.18 to −2.64 S.D. and second group: from −3.13 to −2.15 S.D.) and IGF1 levels (first group from −1.69 to +0.14 S.D. and second group from −1.75 to +0.26 S.D.). GV in 1 year GGH therapy had a mean velocity of 8.41 cm/year while in the second year of treatment GV decreased to 7.02 cm/year. We also had a semnificative correlation between IGF1 increment and height and weight increade (r=0.69, P<0.001) but without a semnificative correlation between IGF1 and GV (r=0.26, P=0.08).

Conclusion: Daily GH treatment in short children demonstrated increased GV and increased IGF1 levels with significant result on anthropometric parameters in the first year of treatment.