ESPE Abstracts

Recent progress in the understanding of growth disorders has further emphasized that growth hormone deficiency is only one of many causes for growth failure and that growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is over-diagnosed in children with short stature. Over-diagnosis of GHD is problematic as it incorrectly labels children with pituitary disease, leads to overtreatment and misinformation of patients and families, and may sometimes prevent doctors from making the correct diagnosis. M...

The diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is primarily clinical and usually includes: short stature but virtually always growth failure, perhaps some physical findings that accompany syndromic causes, and alterations in body composition and in the regional distribution of body fat. Laboratory testing, whether static or dynamic, and medical imaging are mostly confirmatory to the clinical diagnosis. Biochemical laboratory testing for GH insufficiency is fraught with many ...