Is growth hormone deficiency a useful diagnosis?

Evidence is presented that there is a continuum in endogenous hGH secretion ranging from those children with poor growth velocities who secrete very little, formerly called hGH deficient, to those with normal growth velocities who secrete a much greater amount. The relationship between growth velocity and hGH secretion in short children is described by an asymptotic regression. Further, the relationship between growth and hGH is modulated by hGH pulse amplitude. The therapeutic implications of this relationship are that any short child given hGH will grow more rapidly, and that those children growing most slowly with the least endogenous hGH secretion will have the greatest increment in height velocity for a standard dose of exogenous hGH.