Clinical utility of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 in the evaluation and treatment of short children with suspected growth hormone deficiency

Abstract

Hasegawa Y, Hasegawa T, Aso T, Kotoh S, Nose 0, Ohyama Y, Araki K, Tanaka T, Saisyo S, Yokoya S, Nishi Y, Miyamoto S, Sasaki N, Kurimoto F, Stene M, Tsuchiya Y, Clinical utility of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 in the evaluation and treatment of short children with suspected growth hormone deficiency. Eur J Endocrinol 1994;131:27–32. ISSN 0804–4643 We have shown previously that serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) levels have good predictive value for complete, but not partial, growth hormone deficiency (GHD). In this study, we compare IGFBP-3 levels in short children previously divided into groups on the basis of their post-stimulation GH levels. Complete GHD (N = 59) included those children with peak poststimulation GH < 5 μg/l. The partial GHD group (N = 49) had post-stimulation GH peaks of > 5 μg/l but < 10 μg/l. The normal children with short stature (N = 103) had post-stimulation GH peaks > 10 μg/l. Partial GHD and normal children with short stature also were divided into either low IGF-I or normal IGF-I subgroups. The clinical sensitivity of IGFBP-3 for complete GHD was 92%, whereas its sensitivity for partial GHD was 39%. For partial GHD, among those with low IGF-I (N = 19) 68% were also low for IGFBP-3, while 80% of those with normal IGF-I (N = 30) were also normal for IGFBP-3. The clinical specificity of IGFBP-3 for normal children with short stature was 69%. For these groups, among those with low IGF-I (N = 22) 73% also were low for IGFBP-3, while 80% of those with normal IGF-I (N = 81) also were normal for IGFBP-3. In addition, we tested whether IGFBP-3 can predict the response to GH treatment in prepubertal children by comparing pretreatment IGFBP-3 with the height gain achieved by 1 year of GH treatment. The incremental growth velocity during treatment correlated significantly with the pretreatment IGFBP-3 sd score (N = 46 r = –0.80, p < 0.005). The baseline IGFBP-3 sd score for all subjects correlated (N = 171, r = 0.51 p < 0.0001) with height. These data suggest that IGFBP-3 may reflect GH secretion status in most children being evaluated for GHD and that a low pretreatment IGFBP-3 sd score predicts improved growth during the first year of GH treatment. Yukihiro Hasegawa, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Tokyo Metropolitan Kiyose Children's Hospital, 1-3-1 Umezono, Kiyose, Tokyo 204, Japan