CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 69Pituitary Gland Disorders and TreatmentsGrowth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth FactorsHypothalamic control of reproductive hormones

Growth Hormone Deficiency Is Associated with Decreased Quality of Life in Patients with Prior Acromegaly

Open access
Wexler, Tamara, Gunnell, Lindsay, Omer, Zehra, Kuhlthau, Karen, Beauregard, Catherine, Graham, Gwenda, Utz, Andrea L., Biller, Beverly +5 more·2009·The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
DOI 10.1210/jc.2008-2671PMC PMC2708960
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

CONTEXT: Both GH deficiency (GHD) and GH excess are associated with a decreased quality of life. However, it is unknown whether patients with GHD after treatment for acromegaly have a poorer quality of life than those with normal GH levels after cure of acromegaly. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine whether patients with GHD and prior acromegaly have a poorer quality of life than those with GH sufficiency after cure of acromegaly. DESIGN AND SETTING: We conducted a cross-sectional study in a General Clinical Research Center. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: Forty-five patients with prior acromegaly participated: 26 with GHD and 19 with GH sufficiency. INTERVENTION: There were no interventions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We evaluated quality of life, as measured by 1) the Quality of Life Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency Assessment (QoL-AGHDA); 2) the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36); and 3) the Symptom Questionnaire. RESULTS: Mean scores on all subscales of all questionnaires, except for the anger/hostility and anxiety subscales of the Symptom Questionnaire, showed significantly impaired quality of life in the GH-deficient group compared with the GH-sufficient group. Peak GH levels after GHRH-arginine stimulation levels were inversely associated with QoL-AGHDA scale scores (R = -0.53; P = 0.0005) and the Symptom Questionnaire Depression subscale scores (R = -0.35; P = 0.031) and positively associated with most SF-36 subscale scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our data are the first to demonstrate a reduced quality of life in patients who develop GHD after cure of acromegaly compared to those who are GH sufficient. Further studies are warranted to determine whether GH replacement would improve quality of life for patients with GHD after cure from acromegaly.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1210/jc.2008-2671

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Left untreated, anterior pituitary deficiencies are associated with decreased health and quality of life.

    “Left untreated, anterior pituitary deficiencies are associated with decreased health and quality of life [55-59].”

    From Neuroendocrine Disruptions Following Head Injury (2023) · cites this paper as [55]

    The Abstract and Discussion report poorer quality of life in growth-hormone-deficient patients after cure of acromegaly than in growth-hormone-sufficient patients. This supports the claim for growth hormone deficiency, but the paper does not establish the same association for anterior pituitary deficiencies generally or assess what happens when those deficiencies are left untreated. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Undiagnosed and untreated pituitary deficiencies confer increased morbidity and mortality, which can be reversed by appropriate hormone replacement.

    “undiagnosed and untreated deficiencies confer increased morbidity and mortality, which can be reversed by appropriate hormone replacement.”

    From Neuroendocrine Disruptions Following Head Injury (2023) · cites this paper as [55]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) associates growth hormone deficiency after treated acromegaly with diminished quality of life and reports that GH replacement has improved quality of life in patients with deficiency from other causes. It does not establish increased mortality, reversal of mortality with replacement, or the claim for pituitary deficiencies generally; it says replacement benefits in the prior-acromegaly group require further study. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 57 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Wexler, T., Gunnell, L., Omer, Z., Kuhlthau, K., Beauregard, C., Graham, G., Utz, A. L., Biller, B., Nachtigall, L., Loeffler, J., Swearingen, B., Klibanski, A., & Miller, K. K.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Miller, Karen K.
ORCID
Venue
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
Publisher
The Endocrine Society
Published
2009-07-01
Volume
94
Issue
7
Pages
2471-2477
ISSN
  • 0021-972X (ISSN-L)
  • 1945-7197
DOI
10.1210/jc.2008-2671
PMC
PMC2708960
OpenAlex
W2069476119
Cited by
69
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 10
FWCI
4.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Pfizer
  • National Institutes of Health
  • U.S. Public Health Service (M01 RB01066)
  • Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR025758)
  • NIH Clinical Center
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Pituitary Gland Disorders and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Growth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factors
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
Keywords
growth hormone deficiency, acromegaly, quality of life, growth hormone replacement therapy, depression
MeSH terms
Acromegaly, Adult, Mental Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Emotions, Female, Growth Disorders, Humans, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Human Growth Hormone

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review