Combined GH and LHRH analog treatment in short children.

Abstract

It has been reported that the final height in short children is strongly related to the height at the onset of pubertal development, and pubertal height gain in GH-treated children is not exceed the gain in normal children. Therefore, it is now the consensus that insufficient height at the onset of puberty leads to short final height. We have already demonstrated that the final height in GH-deficient children with spontaneous puberty with gonadal suppression therapy by medroxyprogesterone or cyproterone acetate was significantly taller than GHD with spontaneous puberty without gonadal suppression therapy. In this study, we treated short boys who started puberty at height shorter than 130 cm with combined GH and LHRH analog. Final height was predicted by the height SD score for bone age. Although pubertal growth spurt was not recognized in short children on combination treatment, bone age maturation over 11.5 years decelerated significantly to the rate of one year in three or four years. Even during this slow bone maturation period, growth velocity remained at 4 cm/year due to GH treatment. Therefore, height SDS for bone age was improved in combination with the elongation of treatment period by the slow bone maturation. Some investigators recommend not to delay induction if puberty much beyond the normal age to avoid psychological problems and ennuchoid proportion in these children. When we explained to our Japanese patients the chance of increasing the final height with gonadal suppression treatment and the risk of delaying the pubertal development, almost all children preferred taller final height to pubertal development and they did not experience much psychological trouble. The differences in social and cultural circumstances do, however, influence patients' preferences.