Plasma Growth Hormone and Insulin Responses in Short Children

Abstract

The DIAGNOSIS of dwarfism due to failure of the pituitary gland to produce growth hormone can now be firmly established on the basis of low plasma growth hormone (PGH) levels and a failure to increase PGH concentration following a variety of stimulants. Systematic study of large numbers of children with growth retardation suggests that failure of growth hormone production and release is the cause of the observed growth failure in less than 10%. Careful examination of the PGH response to stimulation has failed to indicate any abnormality of the pattern of response that is consistently associated with any of the other types of growth failure. This report presents the PGH responses of 112 short children to insulin-induced hypoglycemia and compares the responses produced by hypoglycemia to the responses observed following arginine hydrochloride and lypressin. The measurement of plasma insulin in addition to PGH during these standardized tests provides an integrated