Short Term Effect of Recombinant Human Growth Hormone Therapy in Children with Chronic Renal Failure

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Growth retardation is one of the major side effects of chronic renal failure. In this study, the short-term growth promoting effect, effect on the chemical parameters, and probable side effects of growth hormone treatment to child patients with chronic renal failure were examined. METHODS: The research sample was 5 child patients diagnosed with chronic renal failure and receiving growth hormone treatement for more than 6 months. Data were gathered on the height standard deviation scores, IGF-I, fasting blood sugar, general chemistry changes, and changes in blood pressure. Collected data was processed as the statistics by SAS (ver 6.12) program. RESULTS: After six months of growth hormone treatment, three of 5 subjects showed clinical increase in height SDS. The rest two, who were older than 10, also showed steady growth, but significant differences didn't appear in the process of statistical analysis (P=0.0625). All of those three done IGF-I has shown clinical increases, but significant differences didn't appear in the process of statistical analysis (P=0.1079). Presumably, it was because of the small number of the subjects and the short period of observation. One of the five patients showed increased blood pressure after the treatment. However, even after stopping the treatment, the blood pressure didn't return to the normal level. CONCLUSION: Growth hormone treatment to child patients with low height caused by chronic renal failure induced growth effect in the clinical setting without pernicious side-effects or significant changes in the biochemical tests.