No Difference in Pubertal Growth and Final Height between Treated Hypogonadal and Non-Hypogonadal Thalassemic Patients

Background: Many factors can negatively affect growth in thalassemic patients, and hypogonadism has been considered as the main factor responsible for their pubertal growth failure. Objective: To evaluate the influence of hypogonadism and its treatment on pubertal growth and final height in thalassemic patients. Methods: We compared the growth of 28 hypogonadal thalassemic patients in whom puberty was induced to that of 25 patients in whom puberty occurred spontaneously. Results: In both groups of patients we observed reduced peak height velocity (induced puberty: females 4.9 ± 2.1, males 6.0 ± 1.8 cm/year; spontaneous puberty: females 6.1 ± 1.5, males 7.3 ± 2.1 cm/year) and pubertal height gain (induced puberty: females 11.3 ± 4.0, males 18.0 ± 4.5 cm/year; spontaneous puberty: females 15.8 ± 2.7, males 18.1 ± 5.3 cm/year) and a short final height (induced puberty: females –1.8 ± 0.7, males –2.1 ± 1.0 SDS; spontaneous puberty: females –2.3 ± 1.0, males –1.9 ± 1.0 SDS). Conclusions: Poor pubertal growth is present in thalassemic patients regardless of hypogonadism. Other factors are responsible for the reduced growth spurt and the final short stature observed in these patients.