In summary, the use of GH in GH naïve adolescents who are seeking
treatment for idiopathic short stature in their late puberty is very likely
to be beneficial as long as their knee epiphyses remain open (irrespective
of bone age at the wrist) and they have at least a growth velocity
of 2 cm/year at the onset of GH treatment. Growth velocity superior to
2 cm/year or knee score of 3 or less at rhGH onset can be used to predict
a height gain greater than 4 cmin 90% of patients. It is to be pointed out
that one third of the current subjects are not typical ISS patients since
their height deficit is less than−2 SD at initiation of therapy, the prediction
of short adult height being based here on near-complete sexual
maturation. Despite the small size of the current study cohort, the
wide individual variability, and the lack of randomization versus untreated
short adolescents, our results are promising and should prompt
confirmation by further RCTs in the late phase of pubertal growth.