Urinary growth hormone determination in prepubertal children using a modification of a commercial kit designed for determination of growth hormone in serum

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to validate a method for the determination of growth hormone (GH) in urine using a commercial immunoradiometric kit designed for serum GH determination and to derive a reference range for healthy prepubertal school children. The urinary GH concentrations in prepubertal children with short stature undergoing provocative GH tests were also investigated. Intra- and interassay coefficients of variance were 5.9% and 4.3% respectively and the mean detection limit of the assay, calculated as +2 SD from the blank values was 0.2 μl^-1. Significant differences in the levels of urinary GH were observed between different collection times in the same individual.

The urinary GH excretion in the normal school children was 8.2 ± 4.5μU night^-1 (range 1.3-19.6μU night^-1). The urinary GH excretion in the short healthy children was not significantly lower than that of the healthy school children. No correlation was found between height, growth velocity or body-mass index and the overnight excretion of GH in the normal school children.

Key Words:

• growth hormone
• prepubertal children
• urine