Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The growth hormone system (growth hormone, GH and insulin-like-growth-factor I, IGF-I) might be implicated in congestive heart failure (CHF). In experimental models IGF-I increases cardiac contractility and reduces apoptosis of myocytes exposed to ischemic injury. In clinical studies GH-therapy has been used in CHF. One previous population based investigation showed that low levels of IGF-I was associated with an increased incidence of CHF. The result of this inves...