C H A P T E R 3 Abstract To investigate whether short term changes in body composition as a result of growth hormone therapy could be used to predict its growth effect after one year in children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) and children born small for gesta-‐ tional age (SGA). 88 GHD children and 99 SGA children who started treatment with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) were included. Total body water (TBW) and height were measured. After one year patients were divided into adequate and inadequate responders. In GHD and SGA children a sensitivity of 87% and 53% resp. and a specificity of 58% and 83% resp. was found. The positive predictive values for GHD and SGA children are 73% and 90% resp. The negative predictive values are 75% and 32% resp. In conclusion: Changes in body composition data measured by TBW are a valuable tool to correctly predict 75% of the GHD children and are only useful in SGA chil-‐ dren when the change in TBW is above the cut off value of 0.7 l/m2. 44
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