Background: Females secrete 2-3 -fold greater amounts of GH compared with males despite maintaining similar IGF-I levels. IGF-I generation tests in healthy subjects suggest this discordancy results from relative resistance to GH in females. In GHD females the presumed relative insensitivity to GH is reflected by a lower basal IGF-I and the need for higher GH maintenance doses during replacement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow bone mass is considered a characteristic feature of adult GH deficiency (GHD). Although low bone mass is universally observed in cohorts of GHD adults of young age, the situation is less clear with regard to cohorts of GHD middle-age adults or the elderly. We have examined the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and age in 125 severely GHD adults using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Prolactin deficiency has been the subject of many scientific studies, but there is a paucity of information regarding prolactin deficiency in humans. In this report, adults with disease of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) were studied to determine the prevalence of severe acquired prolactin deficiency (APD) and the pathophysiological characteristics associated with it.
Patients And Methods: APD was defined as a serum prolactin level persistently below the detection limit of the assay, i.