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Improved Growth Response to GH Treatment in Irradiated Children
Author(s) -
LANNERING BIRGITTA,
ALBERTSSONWIKLAND KERSTIN
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1989.tb17937.x
Subject(s) - medicine , growth hormone , endocrinology , radiation therapy , growth hormone deficiency , hormone , pediatrics
. The growth response to two years of GH treatment was studied in fifteen children after radiotherapy for a cranial tumor. The growth response was compared to that of short children (– 2 SD) and that of children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency (GHD) of similar ages. All children were treated with hGH 0.1 IU/kg/day s.c; which is a higher dose and frequency than previously reported for irradiated children. On this protocol the growth rate increased 5.0 ± 0.5 cm/y (mean ± SEM) the first year and 3.8 ± 0.7 cm/y the second year compared to the growth rate the year before GH‐treatment. Although the net gain in growth was higher than previously reported, the first year growth response was significantly reduced ( p < 0.05) compared to that of GHD‐children (7.6 ± 0.5 cm/y) but exceeded ( p < 0.05) that of short children (3.4 ± 0.3 cm/y). The median spontaneous 24 h‐GH secretion was 209 mU/I in the short children, 52 mU/I in the irradiated children and 16 mU/1 in the idiopathic GHD children. Thus the growth increment varied inversely to the spontaneous GH secretion observed in the three groups.