Research Article
Factors Influencing the One- and Two-Year Growth Response in Children Treated with Growth Hormone: Analysis from an Observational Study
1 Department of Pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson University, 1025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
2 Department of Pediatrics, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Suite 1100, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
3 Novo Nordisk Inc, 100 College Road West, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
International Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology 2010, 2010:494656 doi:10.1155/2010/494656
Published: 23 September 2010Abstract
To assess gender-, pubertal-, age-related differences in change from baseline height
standard deviation score (
), data from 5,797 growth hormone (GH) naïve pediatric patients (<18 years) with growth
hormone deficiency (GHD), multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (MPHD), Turner syndrome
(TS), small for gestational age (SGA), Noonan syndrome (NS), and idiopathic short
stature (ISS) were obtained from the ANSWER (American Norditropin Studies: Web-enabled
Research) Program registry. For patients with SGA, 
at year 1 was significantly greater for males versus females (
), but no other gender differences were observed. For patients with GHD, 
was greater in prepubertal than in pubertal patients. Younger patients for both genders
(<11 years for boys; <10 years for girls) showed a greater 
(
for GHD, MPHD, and ISS). Overall, positive 
were observed in all patients, with greater growth responses in younger prepubertal
children, emphasizing the importance of starting GH treatment early.
