抄録
Synthetic human pancreatic GRF (hpGRF-44) was administered as an iv bolus to 139 normal children of short stature and 63 patients with GH deficiency. After a dose of 1 and 2 μg hpGRF-44/kg BW, mean plasma GH levels peaked at 15 and 30 min, respectively, with corresponding values of 32.2 ± 3.6 and 31.8 ± 2.4 (± SE) ng/ml in normal but short children. There were no differences according to sex or age in plasma GH response to hpGRF-44 between the ages of 4 and 18 years. A similar plasma GH response was observed when 2 μg hpGRF-44/kg BW was administered two hours after lunch. The overall plasma GH response was greater than that of insulininduced hypoglycemia and was similar to that obtained in the glucagonpropranolol test.
Thirty-five of 63 patients with GH deficiency did not respond to a 2 μg hpGRF-44/kg BW. However, plasma GH increases to greater than 5 ng/ml occurred in the remaining 28 patients. Their mean GH level reached a peak at 90 min with a value of 8.8 ± 0.8 ng/ml. The peak values ranged between 5.1 and 17.8 ng/ml with a mean of 9.5 ± 0.8 ng/ml.
These results suggest that hpGRF-44 is useful for evaluating pituitary Gil reserve in children of short stature and that some patients with GH deficiency, diagnosed on the basis of established tests, have Gil responses to hpGRF-44.
