Nocturnal urinary growth hormone excretion in children with short stature.
Nocturnal urinary growth hormone levels in children with short and normal stature were measured by a sensitive enzyme immunoassay. Urinary GH excretion during sleep correlated positively with peak plasma GH values during pharmacological (r = 0.74, P less than 0.001) and sleep (r = 0.85, P less than 0.001) tests. The amounts of urinary GH excretion during sleep differed significantly from each other in the following groups: complete GH deficiency (mean +/- SEM: 0.1 +/- 0.1 ng/m2 of body surface area; range: less than 0.1-0.4), partial GH deficiency (1.6 +/- 0.3 ng/m2; 0.2-3.1), and short stature without GH deficiency (3.7 +/- 0.6 ng/m2; 0.7-11.5). No significant difference was found between short stature without GH deficiency and normal stature (5.0 +/- 0.5 ng/m2; 2.1-10.5). Measurement of nocturnal urinary GH excretion is a simple method for screening of GH excretion and may be helpful in the differentiation of the various etiologies of short stature in children.
Department of Medicine, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, Japan.
N
N
Hattori
A
A
Shimatsu
C
C
Yamanaka
T
T
Momoi
H
H
Imura
D000293:Adolescent; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005260:Female; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000172:deficiency / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
D013006:Growth Hormone