Abstract
Fifty-two tall girls were treated for constitutionally tall stature with different ethinyl oestradiol (EE) dosages. They were divided into three different treatment groups: group B (100 μg EE/day;n=11); group C (300 μg;n=25) and group D (500 μg;n=16) and compared with an untreated group A (n=21) matched for age, height, bone age (BA) and height prediction. Using the height prediction method TW II, EE treatment reduced final height compared with the untreated girls in a weak dose-dependent manner, 2.3 cm (100 μg/day), 3.0 cm (300 μg/day), and 3.8 cm (500 μg/day). Such a dose dependency was not found on applying the Bayley-Pineau height prediction method (100 μg/day: 4.1 cm; 300 μg/day: 4.2 cm; 500 μg/day: 4.5 cm). However, there was a striking inverse correlation of the BA at the onset of treatment with the height reduction achieved using the TW II method (r: −0.43;P<0.001). Importantly, girls with a BA below 12 years at the onset of treatment experienced a height reduction of more than 6 cm.
The EE dose used in the range of 100–500 μg/day is not crucial for the amount of height reduction in tall girls. In general high dose EE treatment should be given restrictively, and especially so in girls with a BA (TW2 RUS-ZH) above 12.0 years.
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Abbreviations
- BA :
-
bone age
- BP :
-
height prediction method according Bayley-Pinneau
- EE :
-
ethinyl oestradiol
- GP :
-
bone age according Greulich and Pyle
- RWT :
-
height prediction method according Roche-Wainer-Thissen
- TW II :
-
height prediction method according Tanner-Whitehouse mark II
- TW2 :
-
RUS bone age according Tanner-Whitehouse et al. [20]
- TW2 RUS-ZH :
-
bone age TW2 RUS adapted to the Zurich longitudinal growth study
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Joss, E.E., Zeuner, J., Zurbrügg, R.P. et al. Impact of different doses of ethinyl oestradiol on reduction of final height in constitutionally tall girls. Eur J Pediatr 153, 797–801 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01972886
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01972886