Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To evaluate the response to growth hormone (GH) replacement in patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) after 1 year of treatment in terms of body composition, carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism and quality of life.

Method and patients: Twenty-eight patients with GHD with the following characteristics: 16 males, 10 with radiotherapy and 18 with panhypopituitarism, were included in our study. Body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) were determined as body composition parameters. The assessment of carbohydrate metabolism was made by measuring fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin. Total cholesterol, serum high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), serum low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) and triglycerides were evaluated as serum lipid markers. Quality of life was assessed by Nottinghan scale.

Results: The mean IGF-I level increased from 63.8±48.6 at baseline to 192.3±102.5 ng/ml, P<0.001. There were no significant changes in BMI and WHR (28.1±6.5 vs 28.1±7.0 kg/m² and 0.84±0.08 vs 0.84±0.06). Fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin did not alter significantly (86±10 vs 88±9 mg/dl and 5.3±0.4 vs 5.4±0.4%). All serum lipid markers experimented an improvement (total cholesterol, LDL-c and triglycerides decreased and HDL-c increased compared to baseline levels; 212±52 vs 202±39 mg/dl, 133±41 vs 126±28 mg/dl, 129±81 vs 126±60 mg/dl and 53±16 vs 54±20 mg/dl, respectively) but these differences were not statistically significant. Quality of life assessed by Nottinghan scale improved significantly (12±10 vs 8±8, P<0.05).

Conclusion: According to our data we can conclude that GH replacement in patients with GHD improves their quality of life and does not impair carbohydrate metabolism. Despite the data on literature, we have not proved a significant improvement on lipid profile.