X-Message-Number: 9637
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 08:50:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: growth hormone and premature mortality

British Medical Journal 316: 1132-1133 April 11,1998

"Growth Hormone as a Risk for Premature Mortality in Healthy Subjects: Data
From the Paris Prospective Study"

Quote from report:

Comment:

   The original finding of this 18 year prospective study is the
independant predictive power of higher concentrations of fasting and 2 hour
growth hormone for mortality.
   We used an old fashioned technique to measure growth hormone
concentration, which was the reference at the time. A lack of assay
precision would however, have increased the variation of growth hormone
within individuals, and the association between growth hormone
concentration and mortality should be reduced and underestimated, not
enhanced.
   We could have excluded the 25 men (3%) who had a 2 hour growth hormone
concentration >2 microgram/liter, another level accepted for the diagnosis
of acromegaly; the trend remained unchanged for fasting growth hormone
concentration when they were excluded.
   Four other independant risk factors were associated with early
mortality, in agreement with a previous analysis of the complete cohort.
For death from cardiovascular causes, fasting growth hormone - along with
the two classic risk factors (arterial blood pressure and cigarette
smoking) - seemed to be a risk factor. Indeed, a direct and causal relation
between growth hormone and cardiovascular growth and function has
previously been suggested. We found a significant relation for 2 hour
growth hormone concentrations with death from cancer. Growth hormone is
also known to play a role in cancer.
   Since growth hormone treatment is being extended, these disturbing
results merit an exploration in other studies of healthy populations.

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