Turner Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Turner Syndrome, including details on symptoms, causes, chromosomes, prognosis.

The correlation of the IGF-I, IGFBP-3, and ALS generation test to height velocity after 6 months of recombinant growth hormone therapy in girls with Turner syndrome.

Collett-Solberg PF, Pessoa de Queiroz AN, Cardoso ME, Jusan RC, Vaisman M, Guimarães MM

Department of Endocrinology, Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Girls with Turner syndrome (TS) have short stature and benefit from growth hormone therapy (hGH). Some TS present a significant change in height velocity in response to hGH while others have only a mild increment. Our objective was to correlate the response to hGH (height velocity after 6 months of therapy) to biochemical data prior to and after the beginning of hGH to try to define a tool to predict the response to hGH. METHODS: Thirteen TS participated in the study (ages 3.5-14 years). Levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were measured before and 5, 30 and 90 days after starting hGH (0.05mg/kg/day), ALS levels were measured only prior and after 5 days. RESULTS: The mean height velocity (+/-SD) increased from 4.27 (+/-1.18)cm/year to 8.46 (+/-2.17)cm/year (p=0.0001). There was no correlation between the height velocity encountered and the expected height velocity using published mathematical models. Basal ALS values correlated to height velocity SDS and IGF-I and IGFBP-3, after 90 days, correlated to height velocity. Most of the data was too scattered to be used individually for each patient. CONCLUSIONS: Even though we observed a relationship between biochemical markers and height velocity in TS treated with hGH, the response to hGH therapy in this condition is highly variable.

Published 4 September 2006 in Growth Horm IGF Res, 16(4): 240-6.
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