Assessment of Somatotrophic Hypophyseal Function in Acromegalic Patients by Estimation of Serum Growth Hormone before and after Surgical Treatment

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Serum levels of growth hormone (fasting levels, during hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia and after arginine infusion) were measured in acromegalic patients before (n = 35) and periodically after surgical treatment (n = 25), i.e. transethmoidal-transsphenoidal (n=20) or transfrontal pituitary ablation (n = 5). The results demonstrate that the estimation of HGH in different function tests is of high value not only for diagnosis of acromegaly but also for the assessment of the effectiveness of therapy. In pituitary adenomas with predominantly intrasellar growth the transethmoidal-transsphenoidal approach is effective to eliminate the pituitary tumor and to restore an approximately normal secretion of HGH. On the other hand, after transfrontal intervention used in some cases of larger tumours with suprasellar extension unsatisfactory results were observed with regard to the secretion of HGH.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: