The effects of GH replacement therapy on cardiac morphology and function, exercise capacity and serum lipids in elderly patients with GH deficiency.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Growth Hormone and Cortisone, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To assess effects of GH replacement therapy on cardiac structure and function, exercise capacity as well as serum lipids in elderly patients with GH deficiency (GHD).

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

All men with gonadotropin deficiency had testosterone and one woman had oestrogen replacement.

Echocardiography, exercise capacity tests and serum lipid measurements were performed at 0, 6, 12 and 18 months.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Growth Hormone group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

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

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Cholesterol, Cortisone, Echocardiography, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Exercise Tolerance, Growth Hormone and Heart.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Growth Hormone and Cortisone.

Its findings take up roughly 14 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2004 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

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