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. 2015 Mar;4(1):65-75.
doi: 10.1530/EC-14-0132. Epub 2015 Jan 19.

Short-term efficacy of recombinant human GH therapy in cured acromegaly patients with GH deficiency: a single-center experience

Pinaki Dutta  1 , Bhuvanesh Mahendran  2 , K S Reddy  2 , Jasmina Ahluwalia  2 , Kim Vaiphei  2 , R K Kochhar  2 , Prakamya Gupta  2 , Anand Srinivasan  2 , Mahesh Prakash  2 , Kanchan Kumar Mukherjee  2 , V N Shah  2 , Girish Parthan  2 , Anil Bhansali  2
Affiliations

Short-term efficacy of recombinant human GH therapy in cured acromegaly patients with GH deficiency: a single-center experience

Pinaki Dutta et al. Endocr Connect. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

The effectiveness and short-term safety of recombinant human GH (r-hGH) in acromegaly patients with GH deficiency (GHD) after treatment are not well established. The study includes ten subjects with acromegaly who had GHD treated with r-hGH for 6 months. Control groups consisted of ten age-, gender-, and BMI-matched healthy subjects and ten active acromegaly patients who were treatment naïve. Body composition, quality of life (QoL), muscle strength, lipid profile, and cardiovascular risk factors were assessed in all subjects at baseline, and the same parameters were reassessed after 6 months of therapy with r-hGH in acromegaly with GHD. Repeat magnetic resonance imaging of the sella was performed in treated subjects. Optical colonoscopy was done and biopsies were taken from multiple sites for proliferation indices (Ki67). The median duration of GHD was 17.8 months and dose of r-hGH administered was 5.7±1.5 μg/kg per day. There was improvement in bone mineral content (P=0.01), bone mineral density (P=0.04), muscle strength (P<0.001), total cholesterol (P=0.003), high-density cholesterol (P<0.001), and QoL - score (P=0.005), and reduction in low-density cholesterol (P=0.003) and triglyceride (P=0.004) after treatment. There was no change in lean body mass, total body fat, hsCRP, lipoprotein (a), and fibrinogen levels. There was a modest increase in plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (P=0.002), but it was lower compared with healthy controls and treatment naïve acromegalics (P=0.007). Six month-r-hGH therapy improves body composition, atherogenic lipid profile, QoL, and muscle strength in GHD patients who had acromegaly. Long-term prospective studies are needed to evaluate the effect of r-hGH therapy in these patients.

Keywords: GH therapy; acromegaly; growth hormone deficiency.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bar diagram comparing the mean muscle strength between the groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bar diagram comparing the lipid profile in the test group before and after therapy.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bar diagram showing the median QLS-H score between the groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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