The Relationship Between the Response to Growth Hormone Therapy and Pre‐treatment Growth Hormone Secretory Status

In 35 children (22 M, 13 F) aged between 5.3 years and 10.3 years who received Somatrem therapy for 1 year there was a curvi-linear relationship between pretreatment GH sensory status (x) and response (y) (change in height velocity standard deviation score (SDS)) to therapy described by the equation y = A + B (e-Cx). A, B and C are constants. Dose of GH administered was found to be an important additional factor in determining response to therapy. This was confirmed by stepwise multiple regression which resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.74. These data suggest that in the assessment of response to GH therapy, pretreatment height velocity and/or GH secretory status as well as dose and frequency of GH administration need to be taken into account.