Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Adults with GH deficiency (GHD) may have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Several studies showed that also GHD children may present cardiovascular risk factors. However results are controversial.

Objective: Aim of this prospective, case-control study on a large cohort of children with GHD was to evaluate the effects of GHD and GH therapy on cardiovascular risk factors, such as lipid profile, clinical measures of visceral adiposity and inflammatory markers in a large cohort of GHD children.

Subjects and methods: Total-, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, fibrinogen, C reactive protein (CRP), waist circumference, waist-to-height (WHtR) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were evaluated in 60 GHD children (40 males), aged 9.9±0.4 years, before and after 2 years of GH therapy. 60 healthy, age-, sex- and BMI-matched healthy controls were enrolled.

Results: Compared with controls, GHD children at baseline had higher total-cholesterol (163.8±3.0 vs 150±2.8 mg/dl, P=0.001), LDL-cholesterol (96.7±2.7 vs 83.3±3.7 mg/dl, P=0.003), triglycerides (73.2±5.4 vs 59.5±3.6 mg/dl, P<0.04), fibrinogen (305±8.4 vs 278±9 mg/dl, P=0.03) and CRP (0.4±0.03 vs 0.31±0.006, P=0.001).Waist circumference was slightly higher in GHD patients although this difference was not significant. However, GHD children had higher WHtR (0.54±0.01 vs 0.47±0.01, P<0.0001) and WHR (0.96±0.01 vs 0.92±0.01, P=0.005) than controls. Two years of GH therapy were associated with significantly reduced levels of total- (149.4±3.27, P=0.001) and LDL-cholesterol (79.6±3.0, P<0.0001), triglycerides (60.9±3, P<0.04), fibrinogen (265±6.5, P=0.0003), CRP (0.32±0.01, P=0.002), WHtR (0.49±0.01, P=0.0006) and WHR (0.92±0.01, P+0.005).

Conclusions: Our data suggest that in children GHD is associated with cardiovascular risk factors such as adverse lipid and inflammatory profile and increased visceral adiposity. GH replacement therapy improves body composition, lipid profile and it reduces inflammatory risk factors.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.