title: Cardiac structural and functional abnormalities in adult patients with growth hormone deficiency.
abstract: Little information is available on cardiac involvement in GH-deficient adults. Thus, we evaluated cardiac structure and function by means of one- and two-dimensional echocardiography in 11 adult patients [3 women and 8 men; mean age, 27.2 +/- 3.8 (+/- SD) yr] affected with GH deficiency. Twelve age- and sex-matched normal subjects served as the control group. All patients had been treated with extractive GH over 9 yr, and therapy withdrawal had been performed at least 3 yr before entering the study. GH-deficient patients had significantly lower values of interventricular septum (7.1 +/- 1 vs. 9 +/- 0.4 mm; P < 0.01) and left ventricular posterior wall thickness (6.1 +/- 1 vs. 9 +/- 0.4 mm; P < 0.01), which resulted in a significantly smaller left ventricular mass index (54 +/- 11 vs. 85 +/- 15 g/m2; P < 0.001). The left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic diameters did not differ significantly after correction for body area surface, whereas ejection phase indices showed lower values, with a fractional shortening of 34 +/- 4% vs. 38 +/- 5% (P < 0.05) and an ejection fraction of 59 +/- 9% vs. 69 +/- 10% (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrate the involvement of cardiac muscle in patients affected with GH deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical-Surgical Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, University Federico II Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Merola
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cittadini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colao
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Longobardi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fazio
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sabatini
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saccá
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lombardi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000172:deficiency*; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
chemical_list: D013006:Growth Hormone