Department of Clinical Auxology and Pediatric Nursing, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland.
Pediatr Endocrinol Diabetes Metab. 2020;26(3):113-117. doi: 10.5114/pedm.2020.97463.
A significant increase in growth velocity is observed during recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy in patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), especially just after the beginning of treatment. This phenomenon is referred to as catch-up growth". After some time, the growth velocity decreases to the physiological value, i.e. the value that is observed in healthy children. The treatment is continued until the time of the growth process is completed. The continuity of the therapy makes it impossible to assess whether the catch-up phenomenon occurs only at the beginning of the treatment or may be observed after treatment cessation and its re-introduction.
Growth velocity was evaluated in a group of 35 patients with GHD after repeated therapy application, in which, due to non-medical reasons, the rhGH treatment was abandoned for a short time.
Patients with GHD after treatment re-introduction presented the catch-up growth phenomenon and obtained growth velocity results that were significantly higher than those observed during primary treatment.
Re-introduction of rhGH treatment after short-term therapy cessation leads to the re-occurrence of catch- up growth in patients with GHD.
在生长激素缺乏症（GHD）患者接受重组人生长激素（rhGH）治疗期间，生长速度会显著增加，尤其是在治疗开始后不久。这种现象被称为“追赶性生长”。一段时间后，生长速度会降至生理值，即健康儿童观察到的数值。治疗会持续到生长过程结束。由于治疗的连续性，无法评估追赶现象仅发生在治疗开始时，还是可能在治疗停止并重新开始后观察到。
我们评估了 35 名 GHD 患者在重复治疗应用后的生长速度，由于非医疗原因，rhGH 治疗在短时间内停止。
重新开始 rhGH 治疗后，GHD 患者出现追赶性生长现象，获得的生长速度明显高于初次治疗期间的观察值。
rhGH 治疗短期停止后重新开始，可导致 GHD 患者再次出现追赶性生长。
