Effects of long-term treatment with GH in the bone mineral density of adults with hypopituitarism and GH deficiency and after discontinuation of GH replacement.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Human Growth Hormone.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of long-term GH therapy on bone metabolism and BMD.

Why It Was Studied

Only few previous studies have assessed the effects of long-term growth hormone (GH) replacement therapy on bone mineral density (BMD) in adult patients with GH deficiency.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 adults.

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

Of the 20 patients, 14 were male and 6 female with GH deficiency of adult-onset.

The mean age of the patients at the start of the study was 40.3+/-10.9 years and the duration of GH deficiency was 10.6+/-6.4 years.

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 Human Growth Hormone and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the adults and researchers unaware of who received Human Growth Hormone.

Some adults received a placebo instead of Human Growth Hormone, giving a reference point.

Rates of bone metabolism were assessed by measuring calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase, calciuria, phosphaturia and osteocalcin.

BMD was measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry.

Body composition was calculated from measurements of bioelectrical impedance.

What Was Measured

Only few previous studies have assessed the effects of long-term growth hormone (GH) replacement therapy on bone mineral density (BMD) in adult patients with GH deficiency.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Absorptiometry, Photon, Biomarkers, Body Composition, Bone Density, Edema, Femur Neck and Human Growth Hormone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Human Growth Hormone in 20 adults.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 11 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2000 (Hormone and metabolic research = Hormon- und Stoffwechselforschung = Hormones et metabolisme), a journal based in Germany.

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