Table 1.

Characteristics of the whole study group at baseline and during GH replacement therapy

Parameters	Baseline	6 months	1 year	2 years	3 years	4 years
Number of patients	117	117	117	88	64	44
GH doses (mg/kg/week)	–	0.183 ±0.01	0.183 ±0.01	0.185 ±0.02	0.193 ±0.02	0.194 ±0.02
Height SDS	–2.6 ±0.56	–2.24 ±0.54***	–1.97 ±0.58***	–1.59 ±0.62***	–1.43 ±0.64***	–1.28 ±0.61***
Weight SDS for height-age	–0.3 (–0.7-0.2)	–0.4 (–0.6-0.1)	–0.3 (–0.6-0.1)	–0.3 (–0.5-0.0)	–0.2 (–0.5-0.0)	–0.4 (–0.55-0.0)
BMI SDS for height-age	–0.4 (–0.8-0.3)	–0.5 (–0.8-0.1)	–0.3 (–0.8-0.2)	–0.4 (–0.6-0.1)*	–0.2 (–0.6-0.0)*	–0.4 (–0.7-0.1)*
HV (cm/year)	5.06 ±1.36	–	9.05 ±1.52***	7.57 ±1.47***	6.53 ±1.79***	6.31 ±1.43***
Bone age (years)	7.6 ±3.59	–	9.1 ±3.61***	9.9 ±3.3***	10.7 ±3.02***	10.9 ±2.44***
IGF-1 SDS for bone age	–0.3 (–0.93-0.34)	1.95 (0.73-4.13)**	1.69 (0.64-4.0)**	2.14 (0.6-4.24)**	1.96 (0.89-3.58)**	1.91 (0.52-3.62)**
TSH (µIU/ml)	1.76 (1.33-2.42)	1.87 (1.31-2.27)	1.94 (1.48-2.65)	1.69 (1.15-2.16)	1.55 (1.09-2.0)	2.15 (1.54-2.36)
fT4 (ng/dl)	1.03 (0.93-1.09)	0.96 (0.9-1.04)	0.97 (0.87-1.05)	0.92 (0.86-1.02)**	0.94 (0.88-1.05)**	0.93 (0.88-1.01)

Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or median with interquartile range as appropriate.

^*p < 0.05 vs. baseline value

^**p < 0.01 vs. baseline value

^***p < 0.001 vs. baseline value; GH – growth hormone; SDS – standard deviation score; BMI – body mass index; HV – height velocity; IGF-1 – insulin-like growth factor-1; TSH – thyroid-stimulating hormone; fT4 – free thyroxine