Growth Hormone Treatment of Children with Intrauterine Growth Retardation

Abstract

The follow-up studies of infants born with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) have shown that some of them are not doing well with reference to postnatal growth (Davies 1981; Fancourt et al. 1976; Fitzhardinge and Steven 1972; Fitzhardinge and Inwood 1989). Intrauterine malnutrition alters the potential for postnatal growth, accounting for the lack of catch-up growth in a significant number of children. Several groups in the past have been concerned with this problem and have set up clinical studies to try to demonstrate the growth-promoting effect of growth hormone (GH) in these children (Grunt et al. 1972 Job and Rolland 1986 Lanes et al. 1979). Most of these trials have concluded with disappointing results. One of the reasons for the negative outcome was probably the insufficient GH doses which were used during treatment. The increasing availability of GH has made it possible to perform clinical trials in a large variety of patients who are growing poorly. A growth response to treatment with GH has been obtained in children with short stature and normal growth hormone secretion, the most prominent example being the treatment of children with Turner syndrome (Rosenfeld et al. 1992).

With the assistance of the working group on r-hGH treatment of children with intrauterine growth retardation: M. Bost, R. Brauner, M. Colle, M.G. Joseph, Y. Lebouc, M. Lecornu, B. Leheup, J.M. Limal, J.P. Malkowski, E. Mugnier, A. Paulsen, M. Pierson, M.C. Raux, and J.E. Toublanc