Effect of Growth Hormone Treatment on Adult Height of Children with Idiopathic Short Stature

Before biosynthetic growth hormone became available, sufficient growth hormone was available to treat only children with severe growth hormone deficiency. The presence of severe growth hormone deficiency was usually identified by a serum growth hormone response to provocative stimuli that was below an arbitrary value, frequently 10 μg per liter, or a low mean serum growth hormone concentration on frequent sampling over a 12- or 24-hour period. These tests are expensive, have some risk, 1 depend on the presence or absence of sex steroids, 2 do not distinguish well between normal short children and those with growth hormone deficiency, 3 and may give . . .