Mìžnarodnij Endokrinologìčnij Žurnal (Sep 2018)

Essential microelement contents in the blood plasma of children with biologically inactive growth hormone syndrome

  • 1 N.A. Sprinchuk,
  • V.G. Pakhomova,
  • O.V. Bolshova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22141/2224-0721.14.6.2018.146062
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 6
pp. 549 – 554

Abstract

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Background. The purpose was to increase the effectiveness of treatment in children and adolescents with biologically inactive growth hormone syndrome (BIGHS) based on studying the content of essential microelements (EM) in the blood plasma. Materials and methods. The study included 206 children and adolescents with different forms of short sta­ture. Group with BIGHS consisted of 29 children (14.08 %): 21 boys (72.41 %) and 8 girls (27.59 %), with growth retardation from –2.0 to –4.6 SD. The average age of children was 9.01 ± 0.60 years. Diagnosis of BIGHS was confirmed by the presence of normal/elevated growth hormone parameters against the background of stimulation tests, a sharp decrease in the level of insulin­like growth factor­1 (IGF­1), and positive test for growth hormone sensitivity. The microelement status was assessed by determining the levels of EM (zinc, selenium, manganese, chromium, copper) in the blood plasma by X­ray fluorescence spectrometry using the ElvaX­med spectrometer (Ukraine). Plasma levels of IGF­1 were evaluated by immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) using standard IRMA IGF­1 kits (Immunotech® kit, Czech Republic). Results. In the group of children with BIGHS, the levels of zinc and selenium were 0.57 ± 0.04 µg/ml and 0.05 ± 0.01 µg/ml, respectively, that is significantly lower than in the general group of children with short stature (p 0.01). Conclusions. Patients with BIGHS were found to have potentially lower levels of zinc, selenium, chromium and copper in the blood plasma. Thus, in our opinion, it is advisable to include the determination of EM levels in a comprehensive examination of children with short stature. When detecting lower levels of EM, a combined treatment with recombinant growth hormone preparations and those containing appropriate EM is recommended that significantly increases the effectiveness of growth­correction therapy.

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