Growth and growth hormone: recent papers on efficacy and adverse effects of growth hormone and World Health Organisation growth standards

Improved adherence and growth outcomes with jet-delivered growth hormone

“…A study assessing treatment concordance by primary care prescriptions of rGH showed that lower concordance compromised height velocity over a 1-9-year treatment period [20] but a free choice of device counteracted this to a degree. In many previous studies [4,16,18,[20][21][22] ( Supplementary Table), children were approximately 3 years older (median age 12.3 years) than even our less adherent group. Thus, we may expect to see in both our cohorts more dramatic changes over time with respect to target height given that children are further from skeletal fusion, though our older group may be nearer the pubertal growth spurt and hence expected to grow faster.…”

“…Our previous study reported that children treated with JrGH in the short term (1 year) are predominantly adherent with this treatment device, especially at younger ages [11]. This may be clinically relevant as growth response, predominantly height velocity, during the first year of rGH treatment is a good predictor of overall growth response and final height outcomes [16]. One study has assessed adherence to rGH with a fully automated tracking injection device, but only reported 1-year height velocity data, and in just 57/97 of the original cohort [17].…”

“…An Italian case series described 106 treated patients of median age 10.5 years of whom 11 grew poorly, with non-adherence considered a factor in four cases who self-reported missing injections at medical interview [21]. By contrast, a prospective study [16] of height, IGF-1 levels and adherence in 53 patients using an automated injection device did not detect a correlation between adherence and height SDS in predominantly male patients aged 10 years; adherence cut-off was set high at two levels of 82% and 92% which might have affected results, whilst parents were also aware of monitoring. The retrospective nature of our study is more representative of patient behaviour and does not introduce such bias.…”

Comparison of the Evaluation of Combination of Ultrasonography of the Reproductive Tract With Hormone Administration on Dairy Cow Fertility

“…Moreover, the wide use of hormones also results in economic waste. Although the side effects of hormone drugs have long been taken seriously in clinical medicine ( 13 ), relevant research in cattle remains insufficient. In dairy farms, the use of routine monitoring and disease detection has been widely applied for effective disease detection and early intervention.…”