Adipose tissue assessed by magnetic resonance imaging in growth hormone-deficient adults: the effect of growth hormone replacement and a comparison with control subjects

Abstract

The visceral and subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (AT) area and the subcutaneous hip AT area were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 12 growth hormone-deficient adults before and after 6 mo of replacement with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) and in 12 healthy control subjects. The data obtained by MRI were compared with circumference measurements of waist and hip. Growth hormone-deficient patients compared with control subjects had a higher visceral AT area (P = 0.003) and subcutaneous AT area (P = 0.013); there was no significant difference in subcutaneous hip AT area. Six months of rhGH replacement reduced the subcutaneous hip AT area (19.8%), the subcutaneous abdominal AT area (15.6%), and particularly the visceral AT area (38.2%), resulting in fat areas that were not different from those of control subjects. Furthermore, this study shows that in contrast with control subjects, circumference measurements are not useful to predict AT areas in growth hormone-deficient patients and cannot be used to assess changes in AT areas during rhGH replacement.