Long-term change in the bone mineral density of adults with adult onset growth hormone (GH) deficiency in response to short or long-term GH replacement therapy.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

Only two previous studies have assessed the effects of long-term GH replacement therapy on bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with adult onset GH deficiency.

To date no study has looked at the long-term impact on BMD after a short course (6-12 months) of GH replacement.

Who Took Part

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

An open GH therapeutic study in which patients were recruited from a previous double-blind placebo-controlled study.

The BMD status of all patients was unknown to the physician and patient at the time of recruitment.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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

Single photon absorptiometry (SPA) and later single X-ray absorptiometry (SXA) were used to measure forearm cortical BMD.

Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to measure lumbar spine, trochanteric, femoral neck and Ward's area BMD.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Absorptiometry, Photon, Age of Onset, Bone Density, Femur, Growth Hormone and Lumbar Vertebrae.

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).

Results are reported in around 10 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1998 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

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