Growth hormone is often used to treat children with growth hormone deficiency, stunted growth, and delayed maturation..

A new study has found that there may be a link between growth hormone and the risk of stroke at a young age, so researchers are calling for caution when treating with this hormone..

Treatment with growth hormone usually involves daily injections of the drug for several years..

At the same time, the doctor regularly examines the child to make sure that the dose chosen is correct..

Common side effects of growth hormone treatment include headaches, fluid retention, joint and muscle pain.. The authors of the new work, who published their results in the American Academy of Neurology journal Neurology, suggest that the consequences of therapy could be much more serious..

“We believe that tens of thousands of people around the world who receive growth hormone should be informed about this risk.. More research is needed to prove this link, but right now clinicians and parents need to be mindful of the moment when they are weighing the pros and cons of therapy,” says study co-author Dr. Joel Coste..

The authors of the latest study used data from the European research project Safety and Appropriateness of Growth hormone treatments in Europe (SAGhE). They analyzed 6,874 patients who were born before 1990 and were included in the French cohort.. All patients started receiving growth hormone between 1985 and 1996..

From 2008 to 2010, scientists monitored participants using questionnaires and medical records from clinics.. The median time between the start of treatment and the end of follow-up was 17 years.. The mean duration of growth hormone treatment was 3.9 years..

There are two types of stroke. Ischemic stroke is caused by narrowing or blockage of arteries in the brain. Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by a rupture of a cerebral artery with blood leaking into the surrounding tissues.

Researchers note that 11 participants had a stroke during follow-up (mean age 24 years). In eight cases it was a hemorrhagic stroke. Four patients died as a result of a stroke.

The results were then compared with data from two patient registries in Dijon (France) and Oxford (UK). The comparison showed that in the group that received growth hormone, according to statistics, 7 cases of stroke should have occurred, and 11 of them were recorded..

As for the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, here the picture was even more unexpected.. In the group that received growth hormone, 2 cases of hemorrhagic stroke were expected, and 8 were recorded.. These results suggest that treatment with growth hormone in childhood increases the chance of hemorrhagic stroke at a young age by 3-4 times compared with people who did not receive such treatment..

The debate continues The authors acknowledge that their study has some limitations. The work did not take into account other risk factors; there was no control group of hormone deficient children who did not receive therapy; it was not possible to collect additional patient data that could affect the results.

Despite these limitations, Dr. Rebecca Ichord of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine noted in an accompanying article that physicians should take a more critical look at growth hormone therapy..

“There has been a long debate about the usefulness, ethics and cost of growth hormone therapy, especially for children who are otherwise perfectly healthy.. Physicians who prescribe GH preparations should discuss the new link with parents when weighing the positives and negatives of a given treatment.. People who have started or have already undergone therapy should be informed about the possible signs of a stroke, as well as the importance of prompt medical attention and prevention strategies,” said Dr. Eichord..

Dr. Eichord also believes that there is a need for further research.. In particular, she suggests looking further into possible stroke prevention strategies in people who were treated with growth hormone as children..

medbe. en.