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Giorgio Radetti, Mohamad Maghnie, Is Growth Hormone Treatment in Young Children Safe for the Heart?, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 89, Issue 10, 1 October 2004, Pages 5271–5272, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2004-1282
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To the editor:
We read with great interest the paper by Shulman et al. (1). The authors report the beneficial effect of 1-yr recombinant human (rh) GH treatment on cardiac mass and function in children with classical GH deficiency (GHD). These findings have important clinical implications in the long-term follow-up because there is a well-established relationship between GHD and increased cardiovascular mortality in untreated adults (2). We would like, however, to make some comments.
In the study, 10 young children with a relatively early onset of GHD at a median age of less than 5 yr were treated with rhGH at a dose of 0.3 mg/kg·wk for 12 months; seven had structural abnormalities of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, a diagnosis compatible with permanent GHD. Their main findings consisted in increased left ventricular mass indexed by body surface area, height or height2.7 after 1 yr of rhGH therapy. The trophic effect of GH on the heart was confirmed, but the results raise questions about the long-term safety of subjects with childhood onset GHD treated at the above-mentioned dose.
