Recombinant human growth hormone and oxandrolone in treatment of short stature in girls with Turner syndrome.

91 girls with Turner syndrome (TS) with a mean chronological age (CA) and bone age (BA) of 10.3 +/- 2.3 and 8.9 +/- 1.9 years, respectively, were randomly assigned to subcutaneous treatment with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) alone (n = 47), 2.6 IU/m2 body surface area daily or combination treatment (n = 44) with the same dose of rhGH and oxandrolone 0.1 mg/kg body weight orally, for the first 12 months of this study. During the 1st year of therapy, there was a striking increase in height velocity (HV) in both groups, from 4.0 +/- 0.8 to 6.3 +/- 1.3 cm/year [HV standard (standards of untreated Turner patients) deviation score (SDS) for CA from 0.0 +/- 0.7 to 2.9 +/- 1.3] in the rhGH group and from 4.2 +/- 1.2 to 8.5 +2- 1.7 cm/year (HV SDS-CA from +0.3 +/- 1.0 to 5.6 +/- 1.6) in the combination group. The difference between the groups was statistically significant (p < 0.01). During the 2nd year of treatment, the rhGH dose was increased to 3.4 IU/m2 daily for the rhGH-alone group, whereas in the combination treatment group the oxandrolone dose was reduced to 0.05 mg/kg daily. HV was maintained at significantly higher levels than those prior to treatment, at 5.3 +/- 1.1 cm/year (HV SDS-CA: +2.1 +/- 1.3) and 6.2 +/- 1.5 cm/year (HV SDS-CA: +3.6 +/- 1.4) in the rhGH-alone and the combination group, respectively (p < 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)