Strength and its relationship to changes in fat-free mass, total body potassium, total body water and IGF-1 in adults with growth hormone deficiency: effect of treatment with growth hormone

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of IGF-1 LR3, published as a randomized controlled trial.

In the first 6 months group E received rhGH and group C placebo; in the second 6 months both groups received rhGH.

Serial data were analysed for 23 males (11 group E, 12 group C) and 20 females (10 group E, 10 group C).

Who Took Part

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

The investigation was double-blind and placebo-controlled for a period of 6 months; this was followed by a period of open treatment for a further 6 months.

Patients were assigned randomly to experimental (E) and control (C) groups.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the IGF-1 LR3 group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on IGF-1 LR3, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the IGF-1 LR3 group a baseline to be compared against.

The timeline in the abstract includes 6 months.

Body composition was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, TBK and TBW.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Body Water, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Potassium and Recombinant Proteins.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of IGF-1 LR3 over 6 months.

The publication is from 1999 (Annals of human biology), a journal based in England.

More context: the IGF-1 LR3 compound page, all human trials.