Use of somatocrinin (GRF) , the growth hormone releasing neurohormone, as a diagnostic test in the differential diagnosis of the hypothalamic and pituitary forms of somatotropin insufficiency of the pituitary gland
Romer, T.E.; Rymkiewicz-Kluczyńska, B.; Szarras-Czapnik, M.; Bogoniowska, Z.
Pediatria Polska 62(2): 96-102
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-3939 PMID: 3112721 Document Number: 287646
The authors administered intravenously a synthetic hypothalamic neurohormone releasing the growth hormone (GRF-44, Sanofi) in a single dose of 2 .mu.g/kg to 16 patients with somatotropin-related hypophyseal insufficiency who failed to respond with a rise of growth hormone concentration to the stimulation test with 1'dopa and with clonidine. In 7 patients from this group intravenous administration of GRF was repeated in the same dose after two months of daily administration of GRF-44 in subcutaneous injections of doses of 10 .mu.g/kg. A rise was found in the concentration of growth hormone in certain studied patients after a single intravneous dose of GRF which made possible the diagnosis of the hypothalamic form of hypophyseal insufficiency related to growth hormone production in these cases. The response to GRF increased in the patients after 2 months of this treatment. a relationship was observed also between the rise of growth hormone in response to a single dose of GRF and the skeletal maturity of the patients. The patients with younger skeletal age responded better, with a greater rise of growth hormone to CRF than the patients with greater skeletal maturity.