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GH is often used to treat children with idiopathic short stature despite the lack of definitive, long-term studies of efficacy. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to determine the effect of GH on adult height in peripubertal children. Subjects (n = 68; 53 males and 15 females), 9-16 yr old, with marked, idiopathic short stature [height or predicted height < or = -2.5 sd score (SDS)] received either GH (0.074 mg/kg) or placebo sc three times per week until they were near adult height. At study termination, adult height measurements were available for 33 patients after mean treatment duration of 4.4 yr. Adult height was greater in the GH-treated group (-1.81 +/- 0.11 SDS, least squares mean +/- sem) than in the placebo-treated group (-2.32 +/- 0.17 SDS) by 0.51 SDS (3.7 cm; P < 0.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.10-0.92 SDS). A similar GH effect was demonstrated in terms of adult height SDS minus baseline height SDS and adult height SDS minus baseline predicted height SDS. Modified intent-to-treat analysis in 62 patients treated for at least 6 months indicated a similar GH effect on last observed height SDS (0.52 SDS; 3.8 cm; P < 0.001; 95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.82 SDS) and no important dropout bias. In conclusion, GH treatment increases adult height in peripubertal children with marked idiopathic short stature.

Although the use of the insulin tolerance test (ITT) for the diagnosis of adult GH deficiency is well established, diagnostic peak GH cut-points for other commonly used GH stimulation tests are less clearly established. Despite that fact, the majority of patients in the United States who are evaluated for GH deficiency do not undergo insulin tolerance testing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative utility of six different methods of testing for adult GH deficiency currently used in practice in the United States and to develop diagnostic cut-points for each of these tests. Thirty-nine patients (26 male, 13 female) with adult-onset hypothalamic-pituitary disease and multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies were studied in comparison with age-, sex-, estrogen status-, and body mass index-matched control subjects (n ‫؍‬ 34; 20 male, 14 female). A third group of patients (n ‫؍‬ 21) with adult-onset hypothalamic-pituitary disease and no more than one additional pituitary hormone deficiency was also studied. The primary end-point was peak serum GH response to five GH stimulation tests administered in random order at five separate visits: ITT, arginine (ARG), levodopa (L-DOPA), ARG plus L-DOPA, and ARG plus GHRH. Serum IGF-I concentrations were also measured on two occasions. For purposes of analysis, patients with multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies were assumed to be GH deficient. Three diagnostic cut-points were calculated for each test to provide optimal separation of multiple pituitary hormone deficient and control subjects according to three criteria: 1) to minimize misclassification of control subjects and deficient patients (balance between high sensitivity and high specificity); 2) to provide 95% sensitivity for GH deficiency; and 3) to provide 95% specificity for GH deficiency. The greatest diagnostic accuracy occurred with the ITT and the ARG plus GHRH test, although patients preferred the latter (P ‫؍‬ 0.001). Using peak serum GH cut-points of 5.1 g/liter for the ITT and 4.1 g/liter for the ARG plus GHRH test, high sensitivity (96 and 95%, respectively) and specificity (92 and 91%, respectively) for GH deficiency were achieved. To obtain 95% specificity, the peak serum GH cutpoints were lower at 3.3 g/liter and 1.5 g/liter for the ITT and ARG plus GHRH test, respectively. There was substantial overlap between patients and control subjects for the ARG plus L-DOPA, ARG, and L-DOPA tests, but test-specific cutpoints could be defined for all three tests to provide 95% sensitivity for GH deficiency (peak GH cut-points: 1.5, 1.4 and 0.64 g/liter, respectively). However, 95% specificity could be achieved with the ARG plus L-DOPA and ARG tests only with very low peak GH cut-points (0.25 and 0.21 g/liter, respectively) and not at all with the L-DOPA test. Although serum IGF-I levels provided less diagnostic discrimination than all five GH stimulation tests, a value below 77.2 g/liter was 95% specific for GH deficiency. In conclusion, the diagnosis of adult GH deficiency can be made without performing ...

Adult GH deficiency (GHD) is currently diagnosed in patients with either a history of childhood-onset GHD or acquired hypothalamic-pituitary disease by GH stimulation testing. However, GH stimulation tests are invasive, time consuming, and associated with side effects. Based on preliminary analyses of patients enrolled in the U.S. Hypopituitary Control and Complications Study (HypoCCS), we proposed the presence of adult GHD could be predicted with 95% accuracy by the presence of three or more pituitary hormone deficiencies (PHDs) or a serum IGF-I concentration less than 84 microg/liter (11 nmol/liter). To validate the diagnostic utility of these criteria, we studied results obtained in 817 adult patients (mean [SD] age: 46.4 [15.7] yr, body mass index: 30.1 [7.2] kg/m(2)) enrolled in HypoCCS who had serum GH concentrations from stimulation tests (11 different tests used, excluding clonidine) and serum IGF-I (competitive binding RIA) measured at the central laboratory (Esoterix Endocrinology, Calabasas Hills, CA). When patients were stratified into subgroups on the basis of the presence of zero, one, two, three, and four additional PHDs, median (25th, 75th percentile) peak GH levels (micrograms per liter) were 3.5 (0.85, 7.1), 0.73 (0.18, 4.2), 0.29 (0.05, 1.4), 0.06 (0.025, 0.295), and 0.025 (0.025, 0.07), respectively. The mean log (peak GH) concentration was significantly different among the subgroups (P < 0.05). The proportion of patients in each group with severe GHD diagnosed by stimulation testing (peak GH < 2.5 microg/liter) was 41%, 67%, 83%, 96%, and 99% for patients with zero, one, two, three, and four PHDs, respectively. The positive predictive values (PPVs) for GHD of three PHDs, four PHDs, and serum IGF-I less than 84 microg/liter were 96%, 99%, and 96%, respectively. The PPV of these three diagnostic criteria was also 95% or more after excluding the data originally used to identify these potential predictors. Taken together, the presence of either three or four additional PHDs or IGF-I less than 84 microg/liter (55% of the patients met at least one of these criteria) reliably predicted GHD with a high PPV (95%), high specificity (89%), and moderate sensitivity (69%). We concluded that patients with an appropriate clinical history and either the presence of three or four additional PHDs or serum IGF-I less than 84 microg/liter (measured in the Esoterix assay) do not require GH stimulation testing for the diagnosis of adult GHD. In clinical practice, we suggest that other causes of low serum IGF-I should be excluded before applying these diagnostic criteria.

BACKGROUND Short stature and ovarian failure are characteristic features of Turner’s syndrome. Although recombinant human growth hormone is commonly used to treat the short stature associated with this syndrome, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial is needed to document whether such treatment increases adult height. Furthermore, it is not known whether childhood estrogen replacement combined with growth hormone therapy provides additional benefit. We examined the independent and combined effects of growth hormone and early, ultra-low-dose estrogen on adult height in girls with Turner’s syndrome. METHODS In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we randomly assigned 149 girls, 5.0 to 12.5 years of age, to four groups: double placebo (placebo injection plus childhood oral placebo, 39 patients), estrogen alone (placebo injection plus childhood oral low-dose estrogen, 40), growth hormone alone (growth hormone injection plus childhood oral placebo, 35), and growth hormone–estrogen (growth hormone injection plus childhood oral low-dose estrogen, 35). The dose of growth hormone was 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight three times per week. The doses of ethinyl estradiol (or placebo) were adjusted for chronologic age and pubertal status. At the first visit after the age of 12.0 years, patients in all treatment groups received escalating doses of ethinyl estradiol. Growth hormone injections were terminated when adult height was reached. RESULTS The mean standard-deviation scores for adult height, attained at an average age of 17.0±1.0 years, after an average study period of 7.2±2.5 years were −2.81±0.85, −3.39±0.74, −2.29±1.10, and −2.10±1.02 for the double-placebo, estrogen-alone, growth hormone–alone, and growth hormone–estrogen groups, respectively (P<0.001). The overall effect of growth hormone treatment (vs. placebo) on adult height was a 0.78±0.13 increase in the height standard-deviation score (5.0 cm) (P<0.001); adult height was greater in the growth hormone–estrogen group than in the growth hormone–alone group, by 0.32±0.17 standard-deviation score (2.1 cm) (P = 0.059), suggesting a modest synergy between childhood low-dose ethinyl estradiol and growth hormone. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that growth hormone treatment increases adult height in patients with Turner’s syndrome. In addition, the data suggest that combining childhood ultra-low-dose estrogen with growth hormone may improve growth and provide other potential benefits associated with early initiation of estrogen replacement. (Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Eli Lilly; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00001221.)