Double-blind, placebo-controlled study of growth hormone treatment in elderly patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis: anabolic effect and functional improvement.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

Elderly patients with end-stage renal disease often have protein and/or caloric malnutrition that severely affects general well-being and mortality.

This resistance could be of clinical importance in elderly dialysis patients.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

In the present study, the effects of GH treatment were assessed in elderly patients receiving chronic hemodialysis.

Twenty hemodialysis patients with a mean age of 71.7 years (range, 53 to 92 years) were included on a 6-month, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of GH treatment.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) could be set against what happens without it.

Body composition was measured using total-body potassium levels, computed tomography of the lower leg, and bioelectrical impedance analysis.

What Was Measured

Serum albumin concentrations and handgrip strength were also measured.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Body Composition, Hand Strength, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Renal Dialysis and Serum Albumin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

The publication is from 1999 (American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) compound page, all human trials.