Adult growth hormone deficiency: academic extravagance or real clinical entity for the internist?

Abstract

The Growth Hormone (GH) continues to act lifelong: it has been described, in fact, an Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency (AGHD) syndrome, involving several organs and functions, whose clinical aspects greatly improve with the administration of human recombinant GH. The authors describe, evaluating the most recent data from the literature, the clinical picture, the pathophysiologic mechanisms, the diagnostic tools and the therapy of AGHD.