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Background: It is thought that growth hormone (GH) therapy success depends on the patient's adherence to their treatment regimen, but an optimal approach to improve adherence has not yet been established. Methods: To evaluate the effect of patient choice of a GH device on adherence to GH therapy, we carried out a retrospective longitudinal study of 46 GH deficient patients (24 boys, mean age of commencing GH therapy: 7.70 ± 3.12 years) treated with recombinant GH therapy for 3 years, either with or without patient choice (n = 28, 18, respectively). Results: The group comparison study for adherence, which evaluated the frequency of missed injections based on self-report, revealed that patient choice reduced the proportion of patients with low adherence 3 years after commencing GH therapy (33.3%--7.1%, p = 0.042). Furthermore, this longitudinal study revealed that the patients with choice yielded significantly greater height standard deviation scores (SDS) (ΔHt SDS: 1.34 ± 0.44 vs. 0.92 ± 0.57, p = 0.020) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) SDS (ΔIGF-1 SDS: 2.49 ± 0.75 vs. 1.89 ± 1.13, p = 0.038) than those without choice. Conclusions: These results indicate that patient choice might improve adherence to GH therapy, which improves the therapeutic effects of GH therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed body composition and muscle strength during the transition phase in 18 growth hormone (GH) deficient males treated with recombinant GH to final height and 18 controls. According to peak-stimulated GH and basal insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) during the transition phase, patients were subdivided into GH deficient (GHD-TP, n=9) and GH sufficient (GHS-TP, n=9) groups. Assessments included lean and fat body mass and bone mineral density (BMD), all measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and dynamic knee muscle strength, assessed by isokinetic dynamometer. Total body and lumbar spine BMD and muscle strength were lower in GHD-TP patients when compared with GHS-TP and controls (all p<0.05), whereas lean and fat body mass were lower in both GHD-TP and GHS-TP patients when compared with controls (p<0.05). These findings suggest that administration of recombinant GH to final height is not sufficient to provide normal body composition and muscle strength in young male patients with GH deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which developed a model in predicting the adult height of a child undergoing recombinant growth hormone (rGH) therapy as cure for idiopathic growth hormone (GH) deficiency (iGHD). It was found that body weight and body surface were not good basis for predicting the adult height of children undergoing rGH treatment. The model may reportedly help the clinician in therapeutic decision making when dealing with patients with iGHD.