Response to growth hormone therapy in patients with growth hormone deficiency who at birth were small or appropriate in size for gestational age.

Objective: To determine long-term growth response to growth hormone (GH) therapy in patients with isolated GH deficiency who had been small for gestational age and in those who had been appropriate in size for gestational age.

Design: Longitudinal, case-control study.

Setting: Pediatric clinic, endocrinology center, University of Bologna, Italy.

Value and limits of pharmacological and physiological tests to diagnose growth hormone (GH) deficiency and predict therapy response: first and second retesting during replacement therapy of patients defined as GH deficient.

There is currently a debate about the use of pharmacological and physiological tests to define GH deficiency and predict response to GH therapy. In addition, a good response to therapy has also been described in subjects without GH deficiency. For further information, we reevaluated GH secretion during replacement therapy in a group of children defined as GH deficient and examined response to therapy in the subjects subdivided according to secretion.

Pitfalls in diagnosing impaired growth hormone (GH) secretion: retesting after replacement therapy of 63 patients defined as GH deficient.

Possible causes of error in the diagnosis of isolated GH deficiency are the variability of GH response to repeated tests, the existence of transient GH deficiencies, and the low GH levels found in short statured children with delayed puberty. Sixty-three patients with variously expressed GH deficiency were retested (1 sleep test and 2 pharmacological tests) after 1-3.9 yr of GH therapy (dose, 15 U/m2.

[Auxological data and definitive height in short patients without hormonal deficiencies. A longitudinal study].

61 children (49 males and 12 females) with stature before puberty less than 3. centile were studied. They had been previously diagnosed with the various GH stimulation tests as "constitutional short" and they were measured after reaching final adult height.

Variability of growth hormone response to pharmacological and sleep tests performed twice in short children.

Forty-nine children with short stature (age range, 4.1-15.9 yr) were examined.