Bone ultrasonometric features and growth hormone secretion in asthmatic patients during chronic inhaled corticosteroid therapy.

Background: Quantitative ultrasound bone densitometry (QUBD) is a new method to assess bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture. Corticosteroid (CS) therapy may diminish bone mass, alter bone quality and may influence growth hormone (GH) secretion and bone metabolism markers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of long-term therapy with inhaled CSs (ICSs) on structural bone characteristics and their correlations with GH secretion and bone markers in asthmatic patients.

Growth hormone response to growth hormone-releasing hormone is reduced in adult asthmatic patients receiving long-term inhaled corticosteroid treatment.

Background: Some studies have demonstrated that the function of the growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 axis is significantly impaired in patients with oral corticosteroid (CS)-induced osteoporosis. The aim of study was to investigate the effects of long-term therapy with inhaled CSs (ICSs) on the hypothalamic-pituitary-GH axis by the GH response to GH-releasing hormone (GHRH), as well as bone turnover, in adult asthmatic patients.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Exercise-induced microalbuminuria in patients with active acromegaly: acute effects of slow-release lanreotide, a long-acting somatostatin analog.

Recent clinical studies have demonstrated an increase of urinary albumin excretion (UAE) at rest in acromegalic patients and, on the other hand, a reduced UAE in patients with growth hormone (GH) deficiency. Physical exercise is known to induce abnormal UAE in patients with diabetes, probably unmasking early glomerular alterations. The effect of exercise on UAE in acromegaly is not known.

Growth hormone (GH) responses to GH-releasing hormone alone or combined with arginine in patients with adrenal incidentaloma: evidence for enhanced somatostatinergic tone.

Spontaneous and stimulated GH secretion is blunted in hypercortisolemic states due to increased hypothalamic somatostatinergic tone. However, no data are available on the characteristics of GH secretion in patients with incidentally discovered adrenal adenomas. They represent an interesting model for studying GH secretion, as a slight degree of cortisol excess may frequently be observed in such patients who do not present with any clear Cushingoid sign.

Long-term treatment with the dual antithromboxane agent picotamide decreases microalbuminuria in normotensive type 2 diabetic patients.

Picotamide both inhibits thromboxane synthetase and acts as a thromboxane antagonist at the receptor level. We investigated the long-term effect of picotamide on urinary albumin excretion (UAE) at rest and induced by exercise in 30 type 2 diabetic patients who were normotensive and had microalbuminuria while at rest. The subjects of our study had a mean age of 52.

Glutamate decarboxylase autoimmunity and growth hormone secretion in type I diabetes mellitus.

Insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic patients are known to have an exaggerated growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone (GHRH), which is hypothesized to be due to a decrease in somatostatin tone. The aim of the study was to ascertain the influence of the presence and activity of the autoimmune process involving a key enzyme (glutamic acid decarboxylase [GAD]) in the synthetic pathway of a neurotransmitter regulating somatostatin secretion, ie, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), on the GH response to GHRH alone or combined with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, pyridostigmine (PD), in patients with type I diabetes mellitus. Twenty non-obese type I diabetic patients and 17 normal subjects underwent an intravenous (IV) injection of 100 micrograms GHRH(1-29)NH2.

Reciprocal relationship between the level of circulating cortisol and growth hormone secretion in response to growth hormone-releasing hormone in man: studies in patients with adrenal insufficiency.

The aim of our study was to elucidate the relationship between the level of circulating cortisol and the GH responsiveness to GHRH in six hypoadrenal patients (one male and five females; age range, 35-67 yr; body mass index range, 18-31 kg/m2). Twenty-four hours after taking the last dose of replacement therapy, each patient underwent the following experimental trials on nonconsecutive days: 1) saline, and 2) 12.5 mg, or 3) 25 mg, or 4) 250 mg hydrocortisone hemisuccinate in 250 mL saline constant iv infusion from 0-180 min.

Effect of the combined administration of galanin and clonidine on serum growth hormone levels in normal subjects and in patients under chronic glucocorticoid treatment.

Aim of our study was to investigate the effect of clonidine and galanin (alone or in combination) on growth hormone (GH) secretion in normal subjects and in adult patients with increased somatostatin tone due to chronic daily immunosuppressive glucocorticoid treatment. We studied 7 adult patients undergoing long-term (no less than 6 months) immunosuppressive glucocorticoid treatment for non endocrine diseases (4F, 3M; age 49.7 +/- 6.

Effect of long-term administration of picotamide on baseline and exercise-induced urinary albumin excretion in patients with type II diabetes mellitus and incipient nephropathy.

The present pilot study investigated the effect of long-term treatment with picotamide on baseline and exercise-induced urinary albumin excretion levels in normotensive patients with type II diabetes mellitus. Six patients with type II diabetes were studied: four patients (two men and two women; mean age, 52 +/- 11 years) were treated for 9 months with picotamide (300 mg, TID) and two patients who did not receive the study medication served as controls. Three of the picotamide-treated patients were given a cycloergometric exercise test at baseline and after 3 and 6 months of therapy to evaluate the effects of the drug on exercise-induced microalbuminuria.

Effects of metoclopramide on the paradoxical growth hormone response to galanin in acromegaly.

Galanin is able to enhance growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone stimulated GH secretion in normal man. In acromegaly circulating GH levels are elevated and the GH response to GHRH may be exaggerated. Galanin has been recently shown to decrease circulating GH levels in acromegaly.

Variability in the growth hormone response to growth hormone-releasing hormone alone or combined with pyridostigmine in type 1 diabetic patients.

In man the GH response to GHRH is variable within and between subjects. Pyridostigmine (PD), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, has been shown to reduce the variability of the GH response to GHRH in normal subjects. The aim of this study was to assess the existence of either inter- or intraindividual variability in the GH response to GHRH in type 1 diabetic patients.

Arginine blocks the inhibitory effect of hydrocortisone on circulating growth hormone levels in patients with acromegaly.

In patients with acromegaly, circulating growth hormone (GH) levels and GH responses to GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) are decreased by long-term administration of pharmacological doses of glucocorticoids. The aim of our study was to investigate the acute effects of intravenous (i.v.

Effect of galanin on the growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in patients with Cushing's disease.

Attenuated plasma GH secretion during sleep and blunted GH responses to provocative stimuli have been observed in patients with Cushing's disease. Synthetic porcine galanin elicits GH secretion when given alone, and enhances the GH response to GHRH in normal human subjects. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of galanin on the GH response to GHRH in patients with Cushing's disease.

Picotamide, a dual TXB synthetase inhibitor and TXB receptor antagonist, reduces exercise-induced albuminuria in microalbuminuric patients with NIDDM.

We investigated the short-term effect of the TXB inhibitor picotamide on albuminuria induced by exercise in 15 microalbuminuric (i.e., with UAE at rest between 20 and 200 micrograms/min) type II diabetic patients (12 men and 3 women, age 56 +/- 2, BMI 28 +/- 1 kg/m2) and in six normal age-matched control subjects.