The relationship between subnormal peak-stimulated growth hormone levels and auxological characteristics in obese children
Student Authors
Jefferson BarrettUMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Quantitative Health SciencesDepartment of Pediatrics
School of Medicine
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2014-03-25Keywords
Growth hormone deficiencyobese children
growth hormone stimulation test
short stature
growth velocity
bone age
mid-parental target height
Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Pediatrics
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Context: The hypothesis that obese children are overdiagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) has not been adequately investigated in the context of adiposity-related differences in auxology. Aim: To investigate the differences in auxological parameters between short, prepubertal, obese children, and normal-weight peers who underwent growth hormone stimulation testing (GHST). Hypothesis: Over-weight/obese children with GHD [peak growth hormone (GH) < 10 μg/L] will have higher values for growth velocity (GV) standard deviation score (SDS), bone age minus chronological age (BA − CA), and child height SDS minus mid-parental height (MPTH) SDS when compared to normal-weight GHD peers. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective review of anthropometric and provocative GHST data of 67 prepubertal, GH-naïve children of age 10.21 ± 2.56 years (male n = 45, age 10.8 ± 2.60 years; female n = 22, age 8.94 ± 2.10). Inclusion criteria: GHST using arginine and clonidine. Exclusion criteria: hypopituitarism, abnormal pituitary magnetic resonance imaging scan, syndromic obesity, or syndromic short stature. Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Results: The over-weight/obese children with peak GH of <10 μg/L had significantly lower value for natural log (ln) peak GH (1.45 ± 0.09 vs. 1.83 ± 0.35, p = 0.022), but similar values for GV SDS, insulin-like growth factor-I, insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3, bone age, BA − CA, MPTH, and child height SDS minus MPTH SDS compared to normal-weight peers with GHD. After adjusting for covariates, the over-weight/obese children (BMI ≥ 85th percentile) were >7 times more likely than normal-weight subjects (BMI < 85th percentile) to have a peak GH of <10 μg/L, and 23 times more likely to have a peak GH of <7 μg/L (OR = 23.3, p = 0.021). There was a significant inverse relationships between BMI SDS and the ln of peak GH (β = −0.40, r2 = 0.26, p = 0.001), but not for BMI SDS vs. GV SDS, ln peak GH vs. BA, or ln peak GH vs. GV SDS. Conclusion: Subnormal peak GH levels in obese prepubertal children are not associated with unique pre-GHST auxological characteristics.Source
Barrett J, Maranda L and Nwosu BU (2014) The relationship between subnormal peak-stimulated growth hormone levels and auxological characteristics in obese children. Front. Endocrinol. 5:35. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2014.00035. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.3389/fendo.2014.00035Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/43221PubMed ID
24723909Rights
Copyright 2014 Barrett, Maranda and Nwosu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3389/fendo.2014.00035