THE GROWTH-HORMONE NEUROSECRETORY DYSFUNC TION - TREATABLE FORM OF GROWTH-HORMONE DEFICIENCY OR HARMLESS FORM OF NORMAL VARIANT SHORT STATURE

To clarify whether growth hormone neurosecretory dysfunction is a form of growth hormone deficiency or a form of normal variant short statur e, we compared the increase in growth velocity and height of 15 childr en with growth hormone neurosecretory dysfunction in the first year of exogeneous growth hormone therapy to that of 21 children with total g rowth hormone deficiency, 22 children with partial growth hormone defi ciency, 8 children with familial short stature, and 8 children with co nstitutional delay of growth and adolescence. The increase in growth v elocity expressed as difference of the SDS-value during therapy was 8. 78+/-4.18 in total deficiency, 5.53+/-3.32 in partial deficiency, 5.99 +/-3.53 in neurosecretory dysfunction, 3.54+/-4.74 in familial short s tature and 3.10+/-3.24 in constitutional delay, Statistical comparison of these groups shows the neurosecretory dysfunction to be rath er a form of growth hormone deficiency than a form of normal variant short stature.