A comparison of pituitary-adrenal responses to corticotropin-releasing hormone, hypoglycaemia and metyrapone in children with brain tumours and growth hormone deficiency

What Was Tested

This clinical trial paper looks at ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

To assess hypothalamic-pituitary function, a corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation test was performed in nine children following treatment for brain tumours and in 27 growth hormone deficient (GHD) children whose pituitary adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) secretion was normal.

Why It Was Studied

In both groups, CRH tests were compared with ACTH and cortisol responses to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and with ACTH response to metyrapone stimulation.

In the patients with brain tumours (five craniopharyngiomas, two suprasellar germinomas, one cerebellar medulloblastoma and one cerebellar ependymoma), ACTH responses to CRH varied greatly with absent or blunted, normal, and exaggerated reactions.

Who Took Part

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

What Was Measured

In both groups, CRH tests were compared with ACTH and cortisol responses to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and with ACTH response to metyrapone stimulation.

In GHD children but not in children with brain tumours the responses to CRH, insulin tolerance test and metyrapone test were correlated.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Brain Neoplasms, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Craniopharyngioma, Growth Hormone, Hydrocortisone and Metyrapone.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

Its findings take up roughly 2 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1995 (European journal of pediatrics), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.