Low oral dose of clonidine: An effective test of growth hormone reserve

Reliability of clonidine testing for the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency in children and adolescents

“…demonstrated for the first time in 18 children that clonidine was an effective GH-stimulating agent in prepubertal and adolescent subjects. 26 A number of studies have confirmed the utility of the CT in the diagnosis of GHD, [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]47,50 but most of these studies have been performed in prepubertal children, [29][30][31][33][34][35][36]50 Whether sex steroid priming reduced the number of false positive responses in our study requires further investigation. It has been previously shown that steroid priming does not affect the number of falsely subnormal responses to CT in one study 27 and does not reduce the number of false positive responses in another.…”

“…Puberty does not influence GH responsiveness after GHRH or PD+GHRH . Although CT is one of the most widely used GH stimulation test, it is still unclear whether the GH response is affected by pubertal maturation. Gil‐Ad et al in 1979 demonstrated for the first time in 18 children that clonidine was an effective GH‐stimulating agent in prepubertal and adolescent subjects .…”

“…Gil‐Ad et al in 1979 demonstrated for the first time in 18 children that clonidine was an effective GH‐stimulating agent in prepubertal and adolescent subjects . A number of studies have confirmed the utility of the CT in the diagnosis of GHD, but most of these studies have been performed in prepubertal children, and none has specifically addressed the effect of puberty on the rate of false positive responses in a large number of subjects. Fraser et al studied 41 children and adolescents and concluded that CT produces less false subnormal responses than ITT.…”

“…Puberty does not influence GH responsiveness after GHRH or PD+GHRH. 49 Although CT is one of the most widely used GH stimulation test, [28][29][30][31][33][34][35][36][37][38]40,44,45,50,51 it is still unclear whether the GH response is affected by pubertal maturation. Gil-Ad et al in 1979…”

“…32 A number of studies have addressed the diagnostic accuracy of CT in the diagnosis of GHD. Most of these studies have been performed in prepubertal children, 29,31,[33][34][35][36] and some have included adolescents or young adults. 28,30,[37][38][39] Given the paucity of the data and the contrasting results, it is not clear whether puberty affects the GH response to CT and whether CT is a reliable GH-stimulating agent also in adolescents.…”