Clinical features of children treated with growth hormone

In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical features of patients who received growth hormone (GH) treatment with a diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) in a tertiary healthcare service. The clinical features of children treated with GH treatment between 01.06.2013-31.12.2018 in our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical features of isolated GHD and patients with panhypopituitarism were compared. In total 118 patients (69 boys) with mean age of 10.2±4.0 were included in the study. 78 (66.3%) of patients were treated with GH due to isolated GHD, 14 (11.9%) due to bio-inactive GH syndrome, 9 (7.6%) due to panhypopituitarism, 6 (5.1%) due to GH neurosecretory dysfunction, 6 (5.1%) due to Turner syndrome and 5 (4.2%) due to off-label reasons. The mean age of diagnosis of patients with isolated GHD was 10.5±3.9 years, and for the patient with panhypopituitarism was 7.8±5.1 (p=0.136). Significantly lower levels of serum insülin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) concentrations were determined in the patients with panhypopituitarism (p=0.026 and p=0.002, respectively). The clonidine test peak responses were significantly lower in patients with panhypopituitarism (p=0.005). Significantly higher growth rates in the first 2 years in the patient with panhypopituitarism were determined (p<0.001 and p=0.005, respectively). A negative correlation was found between the growth rate in the first year and age of diagnosis, GH stimulation test responses and IGFBP-3. Patients with panhypopituitarism had more significant laboratory findings for GHD at admission and better GH treatment responses in follow-up compared to patients with isolated GHD. Keywords: Growth hormone, isolated growth hormone deficiency, panhypopituitarism, growth rate