Growth hormone response to clonidine administration for evaluation of autonomic dysfunction in multiple sclerosis patients.

Objectives: Our objective was to assess the dynamic serum growth hormone (GH) response to clonidine administration in multiple sclerosis patients, looking for a possible biomarker of degenerative process and to correlative with disability.

Methods: 21 patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, who were evaluated clinically by expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score and multiple sclerosis functional composite (MSFC) score and for whom we measured the GH before and one hour after oral clonidine administration.Different cut-off values of EDSS score were chosen for observation of GH serum dynamics after clonidine administration.