
<ArticleTitle>Does recombinant growth hormone improve adult height in children with chronic renal failure?</ArticleTitle>
<AbstractText>During the past decade, the safety and efficacy of long-term treatment with recombinant <prot>human growth hormone</prot> (<prot>rhGH</prot>) in children with chronic renal failure before and after renal transplantation has been established. This article reviews the increasing evidence that <prot>rhGH</prot> treatment also results in a significant improvement of adult height in patients with childhood-onset chronic renal failure. The eventual height benefit of extended <prot>rhGH</prot> treatment appears to be 1.0 to 1.5 standard deviations on average. Whereas prepubertal <prot>rhGH</prot> treatment has a beneficial effect on final height, the efficacy of <prot>rhGH</prot> during puberty is less evident. The cumulative duration of <prot>rhGH</prot> treatment was found to be the most important positive, and the duration of dialysis treatment periods a negative predictor of <prot>rhGH</prot> efficacy, stressing the importance of prolonged <prot>rhGH</prot> treatment starting early in the course of chronic renal failure.</AbstractText>
