Plasma testosterone in nursing home men.
Plasma testosterone (T) was measured at 8-9 a.m. in 44 men chronically institutionalized in a Veterans Administration Nursing Home, and correlated with an extensive clinical data base (including age, diagnoses, drugs, laboratory tests, anthropometric measurements, and mortality during the year after the T analysis). Age averaged 76.4 years (range 60-95). Plasma T was below the lower limit of the normal range for healthy young men (i.e. less than 300 ng/dl) in 46% of the men studied. Samples containing low T (less than 300 ng/dl) also contained subnormal unbound T, but normal concentrations of thyroxine and cortisol. Of the low T samples, 45% contained elevated LH, FSH or both (over 20 mU/ml), and the remaining 55% contained LH and FSH levels below this threshold, these two subgroups representing peripheral and central hypogonadism respectively. Plasma T was significantly (p less than 0.02) correlated in a direct relationship with hemoglobin, serum cholesterol, and the occurrence of seizures.
Rudman
D
D
Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, North Chicago, IL 60064.
Mattson
D E
DE
Nagraj
H S
HS
Feller
A G
AG
Jackson
D L
DL
Rudman
I W
IW
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000097:blood; D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007006:Hypogonadism / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology; D007326:Institutionalization; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*
D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary; D013739:Testosterone