Metabolic Benefits of Growth Hormone Therapy

GHD subjects may present with an abnormal body composition, with elevated fasting cholesterol levels and with increased fasting and postprandial triglyceride concentrations. In addition, concentrations of peripheral inflammatory and fibrinolytic markers have been found to be increased in GHD. Increased carotid artery intima-media thickness and vascular rigidity, as well as abnormalities in cardiac mass and function, have also been noted in GHD. Many of these abnormalities seem to be already detectable early on in life, so that children and adolescents with severe GHD need to be followed carefully as they enter into adulthood. GH treatment seems to have a beneficial impact on body fat distribution, on lipid abnormalities, on cardiac mass and function and on vascular rigidity and may lead to a reduction of the risk of cardiac events in adult GHD subjects.