Effects of growth hormone treatment on adult height in severely short children with X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets

Nadine Meyerhoff, Dieter Haffner, Hagen Staude, Elke Wühl, Michaela Marx, Rolf Beetz, Uwe Querfeld, Martin Holder, Heiko Billing, Wolfgang Rabl, Carmen Schröder, Olaf Hiort, Jürgen H. Brämswig, Annette Richter-Unruh, Dirk Schnabel, Miroslav Živičnjak*

*Corresponding author for this work
1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: We recently showed that a 3-year growth hormone (GH) treatment improves linear growth in severely short children with X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets (XLH). It is unknown if GH therapy increases adult height in XLH patients. Methods: We carried out a follow-up analysis of a randomized controlled open-label GH study in short prepubertal children with XLH on phosphate and active vitamin D treatment. The changes in SD scores (SDS) of height, sitting height, leg and arm length, and sitting height index (i.e., the ratio between sitting height and height) were analyzed in 11 out of 16 patients followed-up until adult height. Results: At baseline, XLH patients showed disproportionately short stature with reduced standardized height (−3.2 ± 0.6), sitting height (−1.7 ± 0.6), leg (−3.7 ± 0.7) and arm (−2.5 ± 0.8) length, and markedly elevated sitting height index (3.3 ± 0.6; each p < 0.01 versus healthy children). In GH-treated patients, adult height, sitting height, leg length, and arm length exceeded baseline values by 0.7 SDS, 1.7 SDS, 0.7 SDS, and 1.2 SDS respectively, although this was only significant for sitting height. In controls, no significant changes in linear body dimensions were noted. Adult height did not statistically differ between groups (−2.4 ± 0.7 vs −3.3 ± 1.2, p = 0.082). GH did not exaggerate body disproportion. Conclusions: Growth hormone treatment did not significantly increase adult height in this group of short children with XLH, which may be at least partly due to the small number of patients included in our study.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPediatric Nephrology
Volume33
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)447-456
Number of pages10
ISSN0931-041X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.03.2018

Research Areas and Centers

  • Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)

DFG Research Classification Scheme

  • 2.22-17 Endocrinology, Diabetology, Metabolism
  • 2.22-20 Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine

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