Abstract
GH secretion was studied during sleep in 37 short patients (28 males and 9 females) with height from - 2 to - 6.5 SD. No cause of growth retardation was known in anyone of them. A concommitant complete endocrine evaluation was done everytime with at least two pharmacological tests, using ornithine, arginine and/or insulin. The major GH sleep peak level (SP) was compared to the major GH pharmacological peak level (PP). SP ranged from 2.9 to 46 ng/ml (mean ± SD = 15.8 ± 11 ng/ml) and PP from 4 to 30 ng/ml (mean ± SD = 13.9 ± 8.3 ng/ml). SP and PP were correlated, r = 0.50 (p < 0.01). SP was consistantly below 10 ng/ml when PP was below 6 ng/ml. However, if individual values of SP and PP were in the same range in 23 patients (12 normal, 5 borderline and 6 blunted), they showed discrepancies in 14 : a lack of SP in spite of a normal or borderline PP in 3 or the contrary in 2, and a borderline SP in spite of a normal PP in 3 or the contrary in 6. This shows that in very short children, a normal or bordeline GH response to pharmacological stimuli does not prelude a lack or an insufficiency of GH sleep secretion. In such cases, measurement of GH sleep secretion may offer a rationale for a trial course of hGH treatment.
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Garnier, P., Raynaud, F., Murrieta, D. et al. Comparison of growth hormone (GH) sleep secretion and responses to pharmacological tests. Pediatr Res 18, 1215 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198411000-00087
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198411000-00087