Impact of age and duration of growth hormone therapy in children with Turner syndrome.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To assess height standard deviation scores (HSDS) in patients with Turner syndrome (TS) by age at treatment initiation and varying durations of treatment with growth hormone (GH).

METHODS

GH treatment-naïve patients with TS from the American Norditropin Studies: Web-enabled Research (ANSWER) Program® Registry were analyzed at baseline, 4 months, and annually.

RESULTS

Three hundred and eighty-two patients with TS had a baseline mean (±SD) HSDS of -2.6 ± 0.9. Patients received short-term (1 year), long-term (<3 years), and extended GH treatment (≥3 years, mean = 4.54 years), resulting in 40.2% (n = 99/246), 60.5% (n = 69/114), and 62.3% (n = 86/138) of the patients achieving HSDS >-2. Patients starting GH at a younger age experienced better growth response, regardless of treatment duration. Change in HSDS from baseline (ΔHSDS) at 4 months correlated positively with ΔHSDS at 1 and 3 years, and ΔHSDS at 1 year with ΔHSDS at 3 years (p values from 0.0017 to<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Height gains in patients with TS during short-term treatment were found to be highly predictive of longer-term results. Continuation of GH treatment (≥3 years) resulted in 62.3% of the patients achieving an HSDS within the normal population range, indicating the clinical importance of early initiation and continuation of GH treatment in patients with TS.