Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: GH therapy (rhGH) improves growth outcome in children born small for gestational age (SGA). Growth velocity is maximum in the first year of therapy. Early diagnosis and treatment optimizes the final height.

Objectives: Evaluation of efficacy and safety profile in the first 3 years of rhGH treatment in ten SGA children.

Methods: The study enrolled ten SGA children (6 boys, 4 girls). All patients were given a mean dose of 0.034 mg/kg/d and followed for a period of minimum 3 years (mean 4.32 years).

Results: The mean height expressed in standards deviations (S.D.) raised from −2.43 at diagnosis to −0.68 after 3 years (Table 1); this achievement declined in time.

In the first 3 years of therapy there were no cases of diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance (>140<200 mg/dl), one patient (10%) presented impaired fasting glucose (>100<126 mg/dl), one patient (10%) developed hypothyroidism and four patients (40%) presented subclinical hypothyroidism treated with L-thyroxin. No malignancies were observed to date.

Conclusions: Growth hormone therapy significantly improves growth in children born SGA, with a favorable safety profile. Maximum height velocity was registered in the first year of treatment, 11.76 cm/year; in the second and third year height velocity declined to 9.24 cm/year and 7.2 cm/year respectively. There were no severe side effects.