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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter November 4, 2015

Successful treatment of short stature with growth hormone replacement therapy in a patient with anorexia nervosa

  • Yuji Koike EMAIL logo , Masaya Akibayashi and Yukako Yokouchi

Abstract

A 19-year-old woman visited our outpatient clinic requesting treatment for short stature. She had been repeatedly hospitalized at a psychiatric unit and was subsequently diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN). She was 139.3 cm (–3.6 SD) tall and weighed 25.5 kg (23% lower than standard weight). She had primary amenorrhea and her bone age (BA) was 11.8 years. She had low insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I (80 ng/mL) and a basal growth hormone (GH) level of 1.47 ng/mL. Treatment with recombinant GH was initiated. At 22 years of age, she was 152.2 cm (–1.1 SD) tall and weighed 39.7 kg. As she had shown a favorable response to GH treatment, therapy was discontinued. We suggest that it is worthwhile treating AN patients with GH replacement therapy for short stature, once low IGF-I levels without GH resistance, delayed puberty, delay in BA, and nutritional stabilization are taken into consideration.


Corresponding author: Yuji Koike, MD, PhD, Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan, Phone/Fax: +81-29-228-8295, E-mail: ; Department of Pediatrics, Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan

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Received: 2015-7-15
Accepted: 2015-9-16
Published Online: 2015-11-4

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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