title: Growth of short children born small for gestational age and their response to growth hormone therapy.
abstract: Growth hormone [GH] is licensed for use in children born small for gestational age (SGA) who fail to catch-up. We retrospectively compared the response of twenty children born SGA (who satisfied the auxological criteria) to growth hormone (Group I) versus randomly selected age and sex matched controls from a group of SGA children with growth related complaints, not treated with GH (Group II). After 2 years of GH therapy the HAZ increased from -2.8 to -1.6 in Group I, compared 2.2 to -1.7 in group II (P-value < 0.05). The percentage of pubertal children rose from 55% to 65% in cases versus 60% to 75% in the controls (P>0.05). GH resulted in increase in growth velocity Z-score during the first year and (4.3±0.5 in Group-I versus - 0.5±0.6 in Group-II, P<0.05) second year of treatment (1.7±0.4 in cases versus -0.6±0.7 in controls, P<0.05).Thus, GH improves height of short SGA children without accelerating pubertal progression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Bharati Vidyapeeth University Medical College, and Growth and Pediatric Endocrine Unit, Hirabai Cowasji Jehangir Medical Research Institute, Jehangir Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Hemchand Krishna
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: Vaman V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Khadilkar
authors.forename: Shashi A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Chiplonkar
authors.forename: Anuradha V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Khadilkar
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height / Q000187:drug effects*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age / Q000254:growth & development*; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D019382:Human Growth Hormone