Pegvisomant: a new treatment modality for acromegaly

Niki Karavitaki, John AH Wass

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Acromegaly, a multisystemic disease resulting from excessive growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels in adults, is associated with a two-to-threefold increase in mortality. The available treatment options (surgery, radiotherapy and medical treatment with somatostatin analogues or dopamine agonists) fail to achieve the currently accepted goals of therapy in a substantial number of patients …

Pegvisomant-primed growth hormone (GH) stimulation test is useful in identifying true GH deficient children

Giorgio Radetti, Heba H. Elsedfy, Randa Khalaf, Cristina Meazza, Sara Pagani, Mohamed El Kholy, Riccardo Albertini, Anna Maria De Stefano, Antonella Navarra, Annalisa De Silvestri, Mauro Bozzola

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OBJECTIVE: Provocative stimulation tests for growth hormone (GH) assessment have poor reproducibility and can often elicit false positive results in normal children. The aim of our study was to confirm the capability of pegvisomant as an enhancer of GH secretion in unmasking false-positive results in short children (height <-2.0 standard deviation score, SDS) undergoing GH testing ...