Increased Final Height in Precocious Puberty after Long-Term Treatment with LHRH Agonists: The National Institutes of Health Experience

We report 98 children who have reached final adult height in a long-term trial of LHRH agonist treatment. These children were 5.3± 2.1 yr old at the start of treatment and were treated with either deslorelin (4 μg/kg·d sc) or histrelin (4–10 μg/kg·d) for an average of 6.1 ± 2.5 yr. Final height averaged 159.8 ± 7.6 cm in the 80 girls, which was significantly greater than pretreatment predicted height (149.3 ± 9.6 cm) but still significantly less than midparental height (MPH) (163.7 ± 5.6). Final height averaged 171.1 ± 8.7 cm in the 18 boys, which was significantly greater than pretreatment predicted height (156.1 ± 14.2 cm) but still significantly less than MPH (178.3 ± 5.2 cm). However, the average adult height of the 54 children who had less than a 2-yr delay in the onset of treatment was not significantly different from their MPH, and 21 children exceeded MPH.