Gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist treatment for central precocious puberty

Several methodological problems complicate the evaluation of final statural height (FH) benefit after treatment with gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists for central precocious puberty (CPP). Since no controlled study has been performed, we have to rely on indirect methods, comparison with predicted height or with historical controls. FH of 58 girls, uniformly treated with triptorelin slow release formulation (triptorelin-SR, Decapeptyl((R))) for CPP were compared with predicted height before treatment and with FH of an historical group of patients not treated with GnRH agonist. The comparison with predicted height revealed an improvement of 4.8 +/- 5.8 cm; comparison with the historical control group showed a mean improvement of 8.3 cm. The post-treatment growth spurt (DeltaFH - height at the end of treatment) was a strong predictor of FH in multivariate analysis. The data suggest that continuing treatment beyond the age of 11 in girls does not improve and could actually decrease FH.