All issues > Volume 34(7); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(7):999-1008. Published online July 31, 1991.

The effects of human growth hormone on short stature.

Sang Mi Ha¹, Duk Hi Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

Received: February 26, 1991;  Accepted: May 24, 1991.

Abstract

Since Raben’s original report that human growth hormone promoted growth in a boy with pituitary dwarfism, the hormone’s efficacy in children with growth hormone deficiency has been amply confirmed. However the scarcity of growth hormone prepared human pituitaries has limited studies of its usefulness in short stature. The availability of a biologically active human growth hormone produced by recombinant-DNA technology has dramatically changed the therapeutic prospects for children with short stature. Thirty four boys and 25 girls aged 4.5 to 16.5 years were treated with human growth hormone for 6 to 50 months. During growth hormone therapy, yearly growth was increased from 5.55 cm to 7.22 cm in the first 6 months and 7.31 cm in the first year. The effects of growth hormone were found to be the most effective in aged between 10 to 14 years and more effective in male than female. And there were significant negative correlations between height velocity and pretreatment height velocity and bone age, respectively. The authors concluded that effects of human growth hormone on short stature were significant, and there would be some more studies on factors that effect growth and its adverse effects.

Keywords :Short stature;Human growth hormone