Effect of long-term growth hormone therapy on bone age and pubertal maturation in boys with and without classic growth hormone deficiency.

We evaluated the effect of growth hormone (GH) therapy on bone age, pubertal maturation and predicted adult height in two groups of boys treated for 4 years: 40 growth hormone-deficient boys who had growth hormone response to provocative stimulation <10 μg/L (GHD group) and 43 boys whose stimulated growth hormone ≥10 μg/L (group with neurosecretory dysfunction (NSDI). All patients had a subnormal integrated concentration of growth hormone ≤3.2 μg/L, height <-2 SD, growth velocity <4.5 cm/yr, and bone age ≤-2 SD for chronologic age. Patients were treated with recombinant growth hormone, 0.1 mg/kg per dose given three limes a week