Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I (IGF -1) Screening For the Diagnosis of Growth Hormone (GH) Deficiencyt
ARPORN SRIPHRAPRADANG, B.Sc.*, PAT MAHACHOKLERTWATTANA, M.D.**, LULIN CHOUBTUM, B.Sc. *, CHA WALIT PREEYASOMBAT, M.D.**
Affiliation : * Research Center, **Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. t Presented at the Asia Pacific Pediatric Endocrinology Workshop, Sydney, Australia on March 27-30, 1996.
Abstract
Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a common cause of growth retardation in children
and adolescents. Gold standard for the diagnosis of GHD is based upon two standard growth hor-
mone (GH) provocative tests demonstrating a peak serum GH of less than 7 ng/mL. These tests,
besides requiring multiple blood samplings, are time-consuming and costly. GH primarily mediates
its growth-promoting effect through insulin-like growth factor-! (IGF-1). Hence, basal serum IGF-1
level reflects GH status. We studied 47 prepubertal children with or without short stature. Aged
ranged between 4.3 and 15.6 years. They were divided into 2 groups based upon 2 standard GH
provocative tests. Seventeen children were classified as having GHD. The remaining 30 were non-
GHD. Basal serum IGF-1 was obtained before GH testing. The means±SE (range) of serum IGF-1
concentration were 44.26±3.19 (19.10-75.63) ng/mL in GHD and 118.42±10.03 (60.65-235.91)
ng/mL in non-GHD which were significantly different (P Keywords :
