effec t of human growth hormone treatmen t in children wi th growth hormone deficiency, turner's syndrome and achondroplasia: a comparison of dose frequency and rou te of adminis1ration

recombinant human growth hormone (hgh) was given for 6 months or longer to 68 patients with gh deficiency, 6 with turner&apos;s syndrome and 5 with achondroplasia, during 1986-1994 in a prospective study. the total weekly administered dose of gh was 0.6 u/kg. by random sampling, 29 of 68 gh deficient patients (42.6%) received twice weekly (2 iw) intramuscular (im) injections, 17 (25%) received twice weekly subcutaneous (sc) injections and 22 received hgh 6 times per week (6 iw) sc during the first 6 months of therapy. in the gh deficient group the mean pretreatment height velocity was 4 ± 1.2 cm! yr (mean ±sd). the mean velocity during the first 6 months of treatment was 8.7 ± 2.3 cm/yr (p<0.0005), regardless of the frequency and type of gh administration. during the second 6 months and second year of treatment, the mean growth rates were 7.7 ± 2.2 and 6.7 ± 2.2 cm, respectively. the mean increase in height during the first 6 months of therapy for the 2 iw im group (7.7 ± 1.6 cm) compared with the 2 iw sc group (7.6 ± 2.1) did not exhibit any significant difference (0.8