Abstract
We report on a boy exhibiting normally sustained growth under panhypopituitarism. At 17 4/12 years of age, endocrine studies were carried out because of absent pubertal development and mild polydipsia with polyuria, showing multiple anterior and posterior pituitary hormone deficiency including complete GH deficiency (peak GH level, below 0.05 ng/mL after insulin stimulation and 0.07 ng/mL after arginine stimulation). Brain MRI revealed pituitary hypoplasia and failed to delineate the pituitary stalk. Nevertheless, his height was 173 cm (mean + 0.6 SD) at 17 4/12 years of age, and increased to 178 cm (mean + 1.5 SD) at 19 6/12 years of age, with no GH treatment. The results suggest that “growth without GH” phenomenon can take place in panhypopituitarism resulting from pituitary hypoplasia, in addition to the post-operative status for brain tumors such as craniopharyngioma.
