Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

Turner syndrome is a rare condition that affects only females. It results when one of the X chormoses is missing or partially missing. It can cause short height, ovarian failure, heart defects and other complications. It is an indication for growth hormone treatment. The aim of our study is to evaluate the statural growth over one year in turnerian patients treated with growth hormone.

Materials and methods

We conducted a retrospective study on 7 Turnerian patients admitted in the endocrinology department and treated with growth hormone. The results were collected and processed using the SPSS operating software V21.

Results

The prevalence of Turnerian patients treated with growth hormone was 36.8% of all Turnerian patients. The mean age of patients at diagnosis was 9.6 ± 4 years, and impuberism was noticed in all patients. At the beginning of growth hormon treatment, the mean height of the patients was 114.6 ± 9.8 cm, the mean standard deviation (SD) score for height was –2.8 SD ± 0.91 for the normal curve, and normal in the Turner curve. The median difference in bone age from chronological age was 33 months (from 12 months to 81 months). The mean dose of growth hormone at the initiation of treatment was 0.8 mg/day, giving an average of 0.04 mg/kg/day. After one year of treatment: The mean height was 120 ± 9 cm, the mean standard deviation score was –2.6 SD ± 1 in the normal curve, and normal in the Turner curve. The mean gain was 6 ± 2 cm, The median difference in bone age from chronological age was 8 months, (from 2 months to 48 months). IGF1 at one year of treatment was normal according to pubertal stage for all patients and no adverse effects of growth hormone treatment were detected during this period.

Discussion and conclusion

In our study, growth hormone treatment allowed an average statural gain of 6 cm over one year. Safety was assessed in all patients. Our results are in agreement with literature data regarding the interest of growth hormone treatment in Turner syndrome, allowing the optimization of the statural gain, especially when the treatment is started as early as possible.