Revaluation of the clinical and metabolic behavior of GHD children during GH treatment according to newly proposed note 39 of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA)

Background The newly proposed note 39 of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) revisited the diagnostic criteria of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in children and, applying it, a percentage of children previously diagnosed as GHD may have received a wrong diagnosis and a unnecessary treatment, with potential clinical implications. Aim To evaluate the clinical and metabolic behavior of GH-treated children according to the new criteria of GHD diagnosis. Subjects and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical and metabolic data of 310 prepubertal children (220 M, 90 F, age 10.8 ± 2.9 yrs) with short stature admitted to our section of Endocrinology during the years 2005-2014, having at least …