Effect of Biosynthetic Growth Hormone and/or Ethinyl Estradiol on Adult Height in Patients With Turner Syndrome

Turner's Syndrome Clinical Trial

Official title: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Effect of Biosynthetic Growth Hormone and/or Ethinyl Estradiol on Adult Height in Patients With Turner Syndrome

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Turners Syndrome is a genetic condition in females that is a result of abnormal chromosomes. Girls with Turner syndrome are very short as children and as adults. Although their growth hormone secretion is almost always normal, giving injections of growth hormone to Turner syndrome girls may increase their rate of growth. In addition, most girls with Turner syndrome do not have normal ovaries.

In normal girls the ovaries begin producing small amounts of the female sex hormone, estrogen at about 11 - 12 years of age. As girls grow older the level of estrogen increases. Estrogen is responsible for the changes in girls known as feminization. During feminization the hips grow wider, the breasts develop, there is an increase in the rate of growth, and eventually girls experience their first menstrual period.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of low dose estrogen, growth hormone, and the combination of low dose estrogen and growth hormone on adult height in girls with Turner syndrome. Patients will be entered into the study from ages 5 to 12 and will be randomly placed into one of four groups.

1. Group one will receive low dose estrogen

2. Group two will receive growth hormone

3. Group three will receive both low dose estrogen and growth hormone

4. Group four will receive a placebo "sugar pill"

Once started, the treatment will continue until the patients approach their adult height, and growth slows to less than 1/2 inch over the preceding year. This usually occurs by the age of 15 or 16.

Patients will be seen at the outpatient clinic every 6 months during the study and will receive a routine check-up with blood and urine tests, and hand/wrist X-rays to determine bone age. On patient's yearly visits they will have the density of bone measured in their spine and forearm.

Clinical Trial Description

Adult women with Turner's syndrome are quite short. Several treatments have been used to increase growth rate in these patients. They include oxandrolone (1), growth hormone (2, 3), and low dose estrogen (4). However, the ability of these hormone treatments to increase adult height has never been evaluated in controlled clinical trials.

We propose to evaluate the effect on adult height of low dose estrogen, growth hormone, and the combination of low dose estrogen and growth hormone. Patients will be entered into the study from ages 5 to 12 and will be assigned randomly to one of the four groups (the 3 above treatment groups or placebo). The randomized assignment will be double-blind throughout the study. Treatment will be maintained to adult height (the first height measurement at which the preceding annual growth rate was < 1.5 cm). Beginning at age 12, the estrogen treatment in all 4 groups will be changed to a standardized regimen of increasing estrogen dose, so that all children in the study will undergo secondary sexual changes at an appropriate age.

In addition, the study will assess the effect of growth hormone and estrogen treatment on bone density and, in a parallel, separate, study, the effect of treatment on cognition and learning ability. ;

Study Design

Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Congenital Abnormalities
• Gonadal Dysgenesis
• Primary Ovarian Insufficiency
• Syndrome
• Turner Syndrome
• Turner's Syndrome

• NCT number: NCT00001221
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: September 1987
• Completion date: September 2003