Abdulmoein E Al Agha, Ali Ocheltree, Mashael A Almalki, Hashim M Sindi, Mohammed H Saiem Aldahr.
Prevalence of growth hormone deficiency among short children at King Abdul Aziz University hospital: a 5-year experience.
Pak Paed J Jan ;35(2):90-3.

Objective: To determine the occurrences of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in children and adolescents with short stature attending the pediatric endocrine clinic at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital. Design: A retrospective, chart review of 650 children and adolescents ages between 2 and 16 years; 273 (42%) males and 377 females (58%) attending the pediatric endocrinology clinic at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital (KAUH) over the period of 5 years. All patients were screened for GHD using Clonidine and Glucagon provocative growth hormone tests. GHD was defined as peak (cut off) serum growth hormone growth (GH) level of < 10 µg/L. Results: GHD among children and adolescents with short stature in our cohort was found in 451 (69.4 %) subjects. Of those with GHD, 200 had low Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) 44.3% and 251 had normal IGF-1 (55.7%). Among children and adolescents with GHD, 199 (30.6 %) patients had normal GH, 150 (23.1%) had normal IGF-1 (75.4 %) and 49 (7.5%) patients had low IGF-1 (24.6 %). Conclusion: Growth hormone secretion should be evaluated in short children showing no catch-up growth after observation of their poor growth velocity, delayed bone age and exclusion of other diseases contributing to short stature such as celiac disease, rickets, chronic diseases, Turner’s syndrome in short girls and hypothyroidism.

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