Effect of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I (IGF-I) in a Short Child with Low IGF-I

The effect of 7 months treatment with subcutaneous insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in a 6 year old boy with normal growth hormone secretion and low serum IGF-I was studied. The initial dose of biosynthetic IGF-I was 0.05mg/kg/day and it was increased to 0.2mg/kg/day. The patient's annualized height velocity was 9.3cm/year during IGF-I treatment compared to 5.0cm/year before treatment. There were no significant changes in biochemical measurements except for the level of IGF-I during treatment. This suggests that the patient's short stature might have been related to the low concentration of IGF-I.