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Increlex Treatment of Children With Chronic Liver Disease and Short Stature

NCT01314508 · Status: WITHDRAWN · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Last updated 2026-04-14

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

A major consequence of chronic liver disease in childhood is growth failure. This is because a chemical essential for growth called growth factor is created in the liver. Lack of response to growth hormone in people with chronic liver disease is characterized by high levels of growth hormone and low levels of growth factors. This growth hormone resistance is reflected in a variety of factors including insulin resistance and low nutritional intake. Unfortunately, growth hormone therapy has no effect for children with liver disease. In addition, failure of normal growth or malnutrition makes liver disease even worse in children, and growth hormone therapy is not likely to reverse this. A lack of proper nutrition is associated with hospitalizations and frequent complications. Poor growth is a predictor of poor outcomes after liver transplantation. Thus the management of children with liver disease remains a challenge. Children who have successful orthotopic liver transplants (OLT) show much improvement in some aspects of growth, including skin fold thickness, mid-arm circumference, and normalization of growth factor levels. However, some studies have recently reported that the growth of 15-20% of children remains poor even after a liver transplant. This can be explained by persistent abnormalities in growth factors after transplant.

Growth factor was found to be a good tool for prognosis in patients with chronic liver disease. Studies showed that patients with liver cirrhosis and growth factor levels below normal values showed lower long-term survival rates compared with patients who had above normal values. This suggests that growth factor can be a good predictor of survival and early marker of poor liver function. In this case, aggressive feeding may modestly improve growth factor levels leading to improved growth but it is unlikely that effects will be optimal. The investigators propose that growth factor administration may have a positive effect that leads to better growth which is a major predictor of good outcome. To date, no reports study the use of growth factor in children with chronic liver disease. This study proposes to examine the effect of growth factor therapy in childhood chronic liver disease.

Conditions

Interventions

DRUG

Increlex

Increlex therapy will begin at 40 micrograms/kg/day twice a day. The dose will be escalated by 20 mcg twice a day every other week up to 100mcg/kg/week.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
4 Years
Max Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2011-06-30
Primary Completion
2011-10-31

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01314508 on ClinicalTrials.gov