In order to evaluate the effects of two long-acting luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists on growth, bone maturation and final height in girls with central precocious puberty, we analyzed growth data from 40 girls (15 treated with buserelin intranasal spray (group A), 15 treated with triptorelin depot im every 28 days (group B) and 10 untreated (group C)). Patients in group A started treatment when chronological age (CA) was 7.7 +/- 0.9 years, bone age (BA) was 10.2 +/- 1.1 years and height was 131.9 +/- 5.0 cm. Patients in group B started therapy when CA was 7.6 +/- 0.5 years, BA 9.8 +/- 1.0 years and height 133.2 +/- 7.6 cm. The diagnosis of untreated patients (group C) was made when CA was 7.2 +/- 0.9 years, BA 9.6 +/- 2.2 years and height 130.2 +/- 8.6 cm. Both luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists appeared to control precocious puberty. Final height in group B (160.6 +/- 5.7 cm) was significantly higher than that of group A (153.2 +/- 5.0 cm: p < 0.05) and group C (149.6 +/- 6.3; p < 0.01), whereas the difference between groups A and C was not statistically significant. In group B a positive difference was observed between final height (160.6 +/- 5.7 cm) and target height (157.6 +/- 5.9 cm) (ns); on the contrary, in groups A and C, final height was lower than target height (155.5 +/- 5.3 and 156.4 +/- 1.3 cm, respectively), but only in group C the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)