Recombinant human growth hormone treatment in children with thalassemia major.
BACKGROUND
To evaluate the growth hormone reserve and the growth hormone response to recombinant human growth hormone (GH) in prepubertal thalassemic children with growth retardation.


METHODS
Twenty thalassemic patients with short stature and delayed bone age were studied. Patients were randomized into GH-treated (n = 10) and non-GH treated (control; n = 10) groups. The GH-treated group received recombinant human (rh)-GH (Genotropin) at the dose of 0.7 IU/kg per week for 12 months.


RESULTS
There was a significant discordance between GH response to pharmacologic stimuli and physiological secretion of GH/GHRH testing. Following the administration of rhGH, growth velocity increased from 2.47 +/- 0.48 cm/year to 6.27 +/- 0.76 cm/year (P = 0.005), whereas there was not a similar change in the non-GH-treated group. The height velocities of the two groups during the 1 year follow-up period were significantly different (6.27 +/- 0.76 vs 3.99 +/- 0.34 cm/year; P = 0.025). There were significant differences between the height velocity improvements and height velocity standard deviation scores of the two groups as well.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study has demonstrated that rhGH is a safe and efficacious mode of treatment in thalassemic children.
Arcasoy
A
A
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University, Turkey.
Ocal
G
G
Kemahli
S
S
Berberoğlu
M
M
Yildirmak
Y
Y
Canatan
D
D
Akçurin
S
S
Akar
N
N
Uysal
Z
Z
Adiyaman
P
P
Cetinkaya
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000150:complications*
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D019382:Human Growth Hormone