If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  DG DISPATCH - WCPGHN: Umatrope (Recombinant Human Growth Hormone) Improves Digestion In Short-Bowel Syndrome By Maria Bishop Special to DG News
BOSTON, MA -- August 9, 2000 -- Children with short-bowel syndrome (SBS) are often left unable to digest food for several years. Now, some may be able to decrease their use of parenteral feeding with the help of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), otherwise known as Umatrope. Results of an open clinical trial of rhGH on prepubertal children with SBS were presented by French researchers at the first World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in Boston, MA. The effects of the drug on bowel adaptation were measured by patients' tolerance to progressively decreased parenteral nutrition (PN). Led by Miriam Dabbas-Tyan, MD, of the pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition departments of Hôpital Necker Enfants-Malades in Paris, France, researchers undertook a study of eight children with SBS. All of the children had had a gut resection that left them with less than 80 cm of small intestine and highly dependent on PN for at least three years. SBS is a group of problems affecting people who have had half or more of their small intestine removed. The most common reason for removing part of the small intestine is to treat Crohn's disease. In the trial, rhGH was administered subcutaneously at a dose of 0.4 IU/kg/day for 12 weeks. PN was decreased progressively by 10 percent each week, according to patient tolerance. After the end of the treatment period, patients’ oral intakes had increased by over 53 percent, while PN had been stopped in all patients. After 47 days, however, six of the eight patients had returned to PN due to weight loss and metabolic acidosis. No side effects related to rhGH were observed. Dr. Dabbas-Tyan noted that, although the rhGH allowed all eight patients to be weaned from PN during treatment, this may be due to increased oral intake without a significant improvement of the absorption rate. Weight and fat mass decreased in these patients, so nutritional efficiency was obviously not maximized. The remaining two patients were totally weaned from PN, six to 12 months after treatment, and their long-term follow-up in this series suggests that three months of rhGH treatment will achieve intestinal autonomy in 25 percent of patients. Diarrhea is the main symptom of SBS. Children with this condition are often malnourished because their remaining small intestine is unable to absorb enough water, vitamins and other nutrients from food. They may also become dehydrated, which can be life threatening. SBS is usually treated through changes in diet, intravenous feeding, vitamin and mineral supplements and medicine to relieve symptoms.
|
