197 GROWTH HORMONE SECRETION IN CONSTITUTIONAL DELAY OF 197 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (CD)

Abstract

Recently growth hormone (GH) treatment of patients with CD has been advocated because of insufficient GH secretion during sleep. We intended to prove these findings by comparing GH secretion during spontaneous sleep between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. every 30 min and EEG controlled sleep during the first slow wave sleep (SWS) at night every 10 min.Patients: Sleep studies were performed in 13 boys with CD aged 11 to 16.8 years and heights below 2 SD for age. Bone age retardation was 1.5 to 5 years, pubertal development Tanner 1 to 2. Five healthy controlls with comparable age and pubertal development served as controlls. Informed consent was obtained from all parents.Results: 13 patients with CD secreted 2025 ng × min × ml−1 GH (696 - 4175) during spontaneous sleep and 9 pts 550 ng × min × ml−1 GH (351 - 2215) during SWS. Four controlls showed 1715 (618 - 2480) during spontaneous sleep and 5 controlls 693 (435 - 868) during SWS respectively. All values are given as median and range in brackets. Median of GH peak was 20.5 and 20.9 during SWS and 28.1 and 20.5 ng/ml during spontaneous sleep in patients and controlls respectively.Conclusion: Since there was no evidence of insufficient GH secretion during sleep in patients with CD, GH treatment of these patients cannot be based on insufficient GH secretion during sleep in these children.