Recombinant human growth hormone treatment for dilated cardiomyopathy in children.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is one of the most common causes of heart failure among children and is often progressive despite maximal medical therapy.

Heart failure is characterized by a number of neurohormonal abnormalities, including derangements in the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling axis.

The researchers undertook this study to determine the effects of recombinant human GH on LV function and mass among children with stable LV dysfunction attributable to DCM.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, young children, children and teenagers, both men and women.

The researchers performed a prospective, single-center, randomized, partially blinded, crossover trial among children 1 to 19 years of age with DCM and cardiac dysfunction of > or =6-month duration.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, single-blind and crossover study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

In this single-blind Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

Each person switched between Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

The primary outcome measure was change in LV shortening fraction (SF).

Other echocardiographic indices of LV function, somatic growth, and somatotropic/thyroid hormone levels were also monitored.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cardiomyopathy, Dilated, Growth, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Recombinant Proteins and Ventricular Dysfunction, Left.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

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 (Pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

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