Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2009) 20 P595

ECE2009 Poster Presentations Neuroendocrinology, Pituitary and Behaviour (74 abstracts)

Growth hormone replacement therapy in adult onset growth hormone deficiency induces favorable long-term effects on quality of life, bone, body composition and lipids: a 55 month prospective study

Anders Palmstrøm Jørgensen 1, , Krisitan J Fougner 2 , Thomas Schreiner 1 & Jens Bollerslev 1


1Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; 2St Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway; 3Aker University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.


Objective: To investigate long-term effects of GH replacement therapy.

Material and methods: Thirty-nine patients (mean age 52.5 years, 14 women) with adult-onset growth hormone deficiency (AOGHD), recruited from a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study of treatment with growth hormone (GH) and placebo for 9months each, were enrolled in an open prospective follow up study. GH replacement was given for additional thirty-three months and was individually dosed to obtain an IGF-1 concentration within the upper part of the normal range for age and sex.

Results: During treatment, IGF-1 increased significantly and reached target levels, P<0.001. The final mean dose was 0.88 (S.D.=0.60) mg/d for women and 0.56 (0.22) mg/d for men, a significant difference between genders, P=0.03. QoL was improved as assessed by HSCL-58 sum score – 7.4 (22.4), P=0.03 and AGDHA sum score −2.2 (6.0), P=0.03, increase in physical activity, P=0.05 and improvement in SF-36 dimension vitality, P=0.006. Bone mineral content and bone mineral density increased significantly, both in lumbar (L2–L4) spine, P=0.001 and P=0.007 respectively, and in total body, P<0.001 and P=0.01 respectively. Changes in body fat mass (BFM) and lean body mass (LBM) observed in the controlled part of the study was sustained with a reduction in BFM by −2.18 (4.87) kg, P=0.01 and an increase in LBM by 2.01 (3.25) kg, P=0,007. LDL-cholesterol was reduced – 0.6 (1.1) mmol/l, P=0.002, and HDL-cholesterol increased 0.2 (0.3) mmol/l, P<0.001. No changes were observed in total cholesterol, fasting triglycerides, HbA1c %, fasting plasma insulin and fasting plasma glucose.

Conclusions: Long-term replacement of low dose growth hormone in AOGHD induces favourable effects on QoL, bone and several metabolic parameters.

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