OPPORTUNITY™: a large-scale randomized clinical trial of growth hormone in hemodialysis patients.

What Was Tested

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

Adult maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients experience high mortality and morbidity and poor quality of life (QoL).

Secondary end points were effects on number of hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, lean body mass (LBM), serum proteins, exercise capacity, QoL and adverse events.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 24 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Planned treatment duration was 24 months for 2500 patients.

The trial was terminated early due to slow recruitment.

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over), giving a reference point.

More than one site took part, so the patients came from several places.

The researchers performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter multinational trial stratified for diabetic status.

What Was Measured

Secondary end points were effects on number of hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, lean body mass (LBM), serum proteins, exercise capacity, QoL and adverse events.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Human Growth Hormone, Hypoalbuminemia and Renal Dialysis.

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) in 24 patients.

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.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2011 (Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association), a journal based in England.

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