VIDEO: Case report may prompt ‘future research’ into growth hormone therapy for IBD
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — In this Healio video exclusive, Onyinye Ugonabo, MD, reviews the case of young patient who presented with symptoms of ulcerative colitis following discontinuation of growth hormone therapy.
“This case was about a 13-year-old who actually stopped taking growth hormone therapy, and then she eventually came down with symptoms of ulcerative colitis,” Ugonabo, an internal medicine resident at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in West Virginia, told Healio.
The patient had no history of ulcerative colitis prior to discontinuation of the growth hormone therapy, researchers noted.
During a presentation at the ACG Annual Meeting, Ugonabo and colleagues noted the female patient received daily 1.8 mg doses of growth hormones for 6 years and stopped treatment after reaching the target height. Within 2 weeks of discontinuing growth hormone therapy, the patient experienced abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and abnormal fecal calprotectin.
A colonoscopy identified non-bleeding ulcerated mucosa in the rectum, sigmoid colon, descending colon and splenic flexure. The results of a biopsy confirmed mild to moderate acute inflammation, crypt architectural distortion and increased chronic inflammatory cells in the lamina propria, which her doctors believe was ulcerative colitis.
“This case is very unique to us because it helps us think that there is going to be possible future research on growth hormones and the use of growth hormone in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease,” Ugonabo said.
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Ugonabo O, et al. A masking effect: A case of initial presentation of ulcerative colitis after discontinuation of growth hormone. Presented at: ACG Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 20-25, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia (hybrid meeting).
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