COMPARISON OF DYNAMIC TESTS FOR GROWTH HORMONE SECRETION IN CHILDREN OF NORMAL STATURE AND NORMAL INTEGRATED CONCENTRATION OF GROWTH HORMONE

摘要

Subnormal integrated concentration of growth hormone (IC GH) is an established eriterion for GH-deficiency. Since IC-GH of normal children is higher than in adults and short stature may be associated with subnormal IC-GH, we previously established the normal range for children of normal stature. Arginine, insuline-induced hypoglycemia (ITT), and clonidine are commonly-used stimulants. The range of normal response to each of these drugs was established through testing volunteers who were mostly either young adults or children with “constitutional delay”. Since it is now recognized that the GH response of adults may be different from that of children, and that many children who were formerly diagnosed as having a constitutional delay, actually have a partial GH-deficiency or low IC-GH, it may be necessary to reexamine the normative data by testing a cohort of children of normal stature and normal IC-GH. The IC-GH of 66 children (7-18 yrs) of normal stature (>5%) and the response to stimulation tests were as follows (ng/ml):The normal range of the IC-GH was slightly wider than we previously reported. The new mean and SD of the normal IC-GH is not significantly different from our previous study. The mean and SD of maximal response of our normal children is similar to that reported on “short normal children”. However the range of response was lower in the short children, overlapping the range seen in GH deficiency.