title: Reference curve for the first-year growth response to growth hormone treatment in prepubertal children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency: validation of the KIGS first-year growth response curve using the Belgian Register for the Study of Growth and Puberty Problems.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Comparing observed and expected growth after first-year growth hormone (GH) therapy is useful for identifying a poor growth response to GH.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To generate a first-year, age-specific growth response reference curve for prepubertal Belgian children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency (iGHD) treated with a standard weight-adjusted GH dose and to compare this national reference with the response references derived from KIGS.
  
  
  METHODS
  First-year height data of 357 prepubertal children (240 males) with iGHD were analyzed. Smooth reference curves of first-year height velocity (HV) in relation to age were created. Differences with the KIGS targets were evaluated after z-score transformation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The observed first-year HVs were log-normal distributed by age and decreased significantly with age (p<0.001). No GH dose or gender effect was observed (p=0.5). Distance to target height, severity of GHD and occurrence of multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies had a positive effect (p<0.01) on the calculated HV SDS. When applying the KIGS targets for severe iGHD, mean HV SDS was close to zero (-0.09±0.84).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The developed age-specific growth response curves enable rapid identification of poor response to first-year GH treatment in prepubertal iGHD children. Our results validate the published growth targets derived from the KIGS database.
authors.affiliation: The Belgian Study Group for Pediatric Endocrinology (BSGPE), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Saartje
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Straetemans
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roelants
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Raoul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rooman
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Schepper
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001530:Belgium; D001827:Body Height / Q000187:drug effects*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004393:Dwarfism, Pituitary / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012042:Registries
chemical_list: D019382:Human Growth Hormone