Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate whether multiple mild head trauma or repetitive heading of long term soccer playing causes growth hormone deficiency.

Patients and methods: 28 retired previously professional male soccer players were investigated. Nine of them had sport related head injuries. Mean age: 48.7 years (range 36–70; S.D.±7.4); mean sport duration (professional and senior activity): 27.4 years (S.D.±8.17). IGF-I, luteinizing hormone (LH), total testosterone (TT) and quality of life with the QoL-Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (AGHDA) questionnaire were investigated.

Results: The mean IGF-I was 376.87 ng/ml (range 214.30–503.26 ng/ml S.D.±81.42), the mean IGF-I-S.D. score (SDS) value was 2.19 (range 0.74–3.02). The mean LH was 4.12 IU/l (S.D.±1.25; normal range: 0.57–12.07), mean TT was 17.44 nmol/l (S.D.±7.03; normal range 5.76–30,4). The mean QoL – AGHDA score showed normal value 2.4 points (range 0–12 S.D.±3.4), but only four of the subjects had more, than five scores (normal <6). No significant differences (P>0.05 in all cases) were found between players with or without head injuries in IGF-1 (385.99 ng/ml±85.9 vs 368.41 ng/ml±81.21), in IGF-I-SDS (2.23 vs 2.13), in LH (3.36±1.08 vs 4.42±1.19), in TT (16.64 nmol/l±7.94 vs 17.92 nmol/l±6.59) and in QoL-AGHDA scores (3.22±3.76 vs 2.05±3.23).

Conclusions: There was no difference between normal populations and retired soccer players in IGF-I SDS values, LH, TT levels and QoL-AGHDA scores. The results suggest that long term soccer playing does not damage the most vulnerable pituitary hormone secretion. Although the dynamic tests (e.g. insulin tolerance test) in a larger population would result more reliable data, but according to our pilot study the consequence of these dynamic investigations are ambiguous.

Disclosure: IPSEN Pharma Hungary, Novo Nordisk Hungary