Diagnostic value of serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in growth hormone deficiency: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

What It Covers

The paper reports a study, published as a meta-analysis.

The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic values of serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 for GHD by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Why It Was Studied

Serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) are conventionally considered available for the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD), but the results about their diagnostic values are inconsistent among some recent epidemiological studies.

Studies on serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 used in GHD diagnosis were systematically searched from databases PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI (up to December 2013).

Who the Included Studies Covered

The quality of included studies was assessed using quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS).

How the Review Was Done

A total of 12 studies were included for the final analysis.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Growth Disorders, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, ROC Curve, Reproducibility of Results and Sensitivity and Specificity.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a meta-analysis.

Its findings take up roughly 1 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2015 (European journal of pediatrics), a journal based in Germany.

More context: all human trials.