ESPE Abstracts

Background: Insufficient data exist for the prediction of the first-year response to growth hormone (GH) treatment in Korean prepubertal children with idiopathic GH deficiency (GHD).

Methods: Data from children (n = 345) who were in the LG Growth Study Database or had participated in other relevant clinical trials were used to develop a model. All included patients had been diagnosed with idiopathic GHD with maximum GH levels of less than 10 ng/mL in at least two GH stimulation tests and presented in a prepubertal state during the first year of GH treatment. Children with pituitary or hypothalamic lesions were excluded.

Results: In the first year of GH treatment, the change in height standard deviation score (SDS) was correlated positively with weight SDS (β = 0.304, P = 0.0003), body mass index (BMI) SDS (β = 0.443, P < 0.0001), paternal height (β = 0.054, P = 0.0013), paternal height SDS (β = 0.296, P = 0.0013), mid-parent height (MPH; β = 0.026, P = 0.0268), and MPH SDS (β = 0.421, P = 0.0004) but negatively with age (β = −0.294, P < 0.0001), bone age (β = −0.249, P < 0.0001), and MPH SDS minus baseline height SDS (β = 0.099, P = < 0.0001). A growth prediction model was established using the following variables: age, BMI SDS, bone age, paternal height, MPH SDS minus height SDS, initial dose of GH, and sex. The equation describing the predicted height SDS during the first year of GH treatment is as follows: ΔHeight SDS during 1^st year of GH treatment=1.06 −0.05 * age + 0.09 * (MPH SDS minus baseline height SDS) + 0.05 * BMI SDS. This model explained 19.6% of the variability of the response with an error (SD) of 0.31. This model explained 19.6% of the variability in the response, with an error (SD) of 0.31.

Conclusions: In Korean prepubertal children with idiopathic GHD, the first-year response to GH treatment was negatively correlated with chronological age and positively correlated with BMI and the difference between their MPH SDS and a child's present height SDS.