Barts and The London Endocrinology Centre
The most common types of growth disorders we see and treat in children include;
Growth hormone is a protein made in the pituitary gland and passed from there into the blood stream. Growth hormone affects virtually every part of the body and in children, its primary use is to make them grow. The cause of growth hormone deficiency in children is often unknown. It is also often transient, meaning that treatment is often not required once growth has stopped. However this is not always the case and it may be beneficial to continue treatment into adulthood. Treatment in children involves giving effective doses of growth hormone delivered via a small injection. Most children will normally require one injection a day just before bed.
Children and their families will be guided and shown how to inject themselves by one of our specialist nurses. All the training is tailored to suit each patients needs – some understand and grasp the technique of self-injecting within 20 minutes, while others may require a few hours. If more than a few hours training is needed, the nurse will ensure that the training session is divided into short slots to avoid any unnecessary worry or frustration.
To answer any questions or concerns, the paediatric endocrine specialist nurses are available on 020 7943 1307
To find out more about growth hormone deficiency as well as other growth disorders in children, please click here
Poor growth due to being born small for gestational age
Often referred to as either small for gestational age (SGA) or inuterine growth retardation (IUGR), this term relates to those babies who are born with a low birth weight. By two or three years of age, the majority of babies born with a low birth weight (or SGA) will have what is called ‘catch-up growth’ and reach the same size as their peers. However, for reasons not fully understood, a small percentage of children born SGA will continue to grow poorly.
Growth hormone therapy has shown to be a very effective treatment for a lot of children with poor growth resulting from being born SGA. Our paediatric endocrine department has a comparatively large cohort of children with this condition who are treated with growth hormone therapy.
Our department has a keen interest in this particular area of poor growth in children, and is involved in a number of local, national and international related studies.
Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosome abnormality affecting only females. This is caused by the complete or partial deletion of a single X chromosome. Two main symptoms of TS are short stature and non-functioning ovaries. Non-functioning ovaries results in the absence of female sexual characteristics (e.g. breast development and pubic hair) and eventually infertility.
Our patients with TS are treated with growth hormone treatment for their short stature.
Due to non-functioning ovaries, puberty will need to be induced for girls with TS; this occurs through the use of oestrogen therapy. It is important to start the process of puberty at an appropriate age so that a girl with TS is able to start maturing, physically and emotionally, at the same time as her peer group. Towards the end of puberty another hormone, progesterone, is added to the oestrogen therapy.
To find out more information click here
Noonan syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes abnormal development of multiple parts of the body. Some symptoms include delayed puberty, short stature, unusual chest shape and hearing loss, although symptoms do vary from patient to patient. There is no single treatment for Noonan syndrome and we concentrate on the individual symptoms, for example, growth hormone can be used to treat short stature. To find out more about this condition please click here