Responses to GHRH plus arginine test are more concordant with IGF-I circulating levels than responses to arginine and clonidine provocative tests.

Background/objective: Although pharmacological GH stimulation tests are still considered the gold standard for GH deficiency (GHD) diagnosis, they are burdened by poor specificity. The majority of children diagnosed as having GHD show normal GH responses when re-tested at the end of growth, thus questioning the initial diagnosis. We evaluated the concordance between IGF-I levels and GH responses to provocative tests.

Assessment of metabolic brain damage and recovery following mild traumatic brain injury: a multicentre, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic study in concussed patients.

Concussive head injury opens a temporary window of brain vulnerability due to the impairment of cellular energetic metabolism. As experimentally demonstrated, a second mild injury occurring during this period can lead to severe brain damage, a condition clinically described as the second impact syndrome. To corroborate the validity of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in monitoring cerebral metabolic changes following mild traumatic brain injury, apart from the magnetic field strength (1.

Patients with moderate head injury: a prospective multicenter study of 315 patients.

Objective: To analyze the risk factors of worst outcome associated with moderate head injury.

Methods: Data on patients with moderate head injury were collected prospectively in 11 Italian neurosurgical units over a period of 18 months. Patients older than 18 years with blunt head injury and at least one Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score between 9 and 13 were enrolled.

Marked left ventricular hypertrophy mimicking hypertrophic cardiomyopathy associated with steroid therapy for congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

We describe a child treated with high-dose steroid therapy for congenital adrenal hyperplasia who showed marked left ventricular hypertrophy mimicking hypertrophic cardiomyopathy associated with steroid therapy for congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Cardiomyopathy reversed completely when an appropriate steroid therapeutic regimen was established.

Biochemical analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid: evidence for catastrophic energy failure and oxidative damage preceding brain death in severe head injury: a case report.

Objectives: To compare biochemical and clinical parameters in a case of fatal severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with secondary insult.

Design And Methods: A TBI patient was catheterized for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis of ascorbate, malondialdehyde, oxypurines, and nucleosides.

Results: Oxidative brain damage preceded ATP catabolite increment in the CSF even with ICP below 20 mm Hg.