Dr. J. M. Wit, from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues assessed the 5-year outcomes of 35 children with ISS who were randomized to receive GH therapy or no treatment. The subjects included 9 girls, 4 to 8 years of age, and 26 boys, 4 to 10 years of age. At enrollment, none of the children had signs of puberty and all had normal body proportions.
The researchers’ findings are published in the September issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
GH-treated children experienced significant improvements in height, while control subjects did not, the investigators note. However, GH therapy was associated with accelerated bone maturation and GH-treated children were about seven times more likely to enter puberty before control subjects.
"Short term, high dose GH treatment during prepuberty results in a significant improvement of height," the author’s write. However, "an expected high rate of bone maturation and an earlier onset of puberty were observed."
"At present we have no indication that young children with ISS benefit from high dose GH treatment in the prepubertal period," they conclude.
In a related editorial, Dr. P. E. Clayton, from the University of Manchester in the UK, adds that "a disturbance to the timing of puberty, with the onset being brought forward, could wipe out" GH’s ability to increase final height.
Arch Dis Child 2002;87:215-220.
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