Contents
Somatotropin or STH is a hormone that is responsible in the human body for physical development. The synthesis of this substance in normal quantities allows you to get the normal development of the body, the lack of growth hormone leads to growth retardation, and an excess leads to gigantism. This hormone is produced not only in the children’s body – in the adult body, growth hormone has its own tasks. That is why it is so important to know in a timely manner the volume that is currently present in the human body with various problems.
Growth hormone is produced in the body by the endocrine gland, the pituitary gland. It contributes to the normal linear growth of the human body, and also takes part in many processes inside the body in adulthood.
Characteristic analysis
A blood test for growth hormone determines the concentration of growth hormone in the body. Its production occurs at an undulating pace, noticeably intensifying at night, when a person is sleeping. Somatotropin is indispensable for children in terms of their physical development. Thanks to growth hormone, bones can linearly increase in size from the moment of birth until the end of a person’s puberty.
If STH is not produced in the proper volumes, then the child physically develops more slowly than peers, there are cases of disproportionate growth of body parts. When there is too much growth hormone, the child begins to stretch too fast, his bones become very long and the process does not stop at the end of puberty of a teenager. People with this amount of STH are taller than 2 meters, have coarse facial features, suffer from general weakness, headache, and delayed sexual development. This state of affairs is very often the result of benign neoplasms in the pituitary gland.
For an adult, the normal production of growth hormone helps maintain the muscle corset, maintain the density and strength of the skeleton, and regulate lipid metabolism. With an excessive concentration of somatotropin, an adult develops acromegaly, that is, thickening of the bones, which is characterized externally by thickening of the skin, an increase in the feet and hands, coarsening of facial features, sore joints, sweating, fatigue, an increase in the volume of internal organs and the occurrence of neoplasms. Outwardly, most often, an increase in the level of somatotropin in adults is manifested by the appearance of skin papillomas. As for the internal organs, the formation of polyps in the gastrointestinal tract is possible.
Acromegaly and gigantism are fraught with many serious complications, such as:
- various cardiac pathologies;
- non-insulin-dependent diabetes and other metabolic disorders;
- destruction of joint tissue.
Purpose of analysis for STG
With a routine medical examination of children, adolescents and adults, it makes no sense to prescribe a somatotropin test for everyone in a row. Such an analysis is prescribed to patients if there are certain indications for it. To examine pituitary functions, specialists use other diagnostic methods, but if they do not bring the expected results and do not clarify the picture of the disease, an analysis for growth hormone is prescribed. Also, the delivery of growth hormone is needed when monitoring therapy during the treatment of acromegaly.
On the eve of the study of the level of growth hormone, specialists necessarily control the levels of other pituitary hormones – thyroid-stimulating hormone, FSH and others. Sometimes it is required to control the production of adrenal hormones or those produced by the thyroid gland. With their unstable levels, therapy is required until the hormonal background is brought back to normal, after which it becomes possible to take an analysis to detect the level of growth hormone in the human body.
The main indications for referral to STG analysis are growth retardation or its excessive rate in childhood, osteoporosis, and suspected acromegaly.
Preparation for analysis, its stimulation or suppression
The maximum production of growth hormone occurs in the first half of the night, and in the morning its amount decreases. But it is unrealistic to take a blood test at night, therefore, most often, if a growth hormone deficiency is suspected and when determining the causes of short stature, the analysis is taken in the morning. It is better to analyze the results together with the protein through which the growth hormone “works” – somatomedin (IGF-1, aka IGF-1, aka IGF-1). This protein is responsible for the effects of growth hormone, reflecting an excess or deficiency of somatotropic hormone. Unlike the latter, the level of IGF-1 is stable throughout the day, so it can be used as an indicator of the average amount of somatotropic hormone.
Due to the uneven synthesis of growth hormone in the human body during the day, an analysis to detect its deficiency or excess is carried out using provocations, that is, artificial stimulation or suppression of the production of this hormone.
12 hours before the analysis to determine the level of somatotropin in the body, it is strictly forbidden to eat or drink anything. Only clean water is allowed. On the eve of the test, you can not load yourself physically and eat fatty foods. Before taking blood for 30 minutes, the patient should completely relax and, if possible, rest. In order for the results of the analysis for growth hormone to be interpreted correctly by the specialist, he must know what medications the patient is using on an ongoing basis, since they can affect the indicators.
On the eve of the analysis to determine the level of somatotropin in the body, it is strictly forbidden to eat or drink anything for 12 hours. Only clean water is allowed. Blood for GH is taken exclusively in the morning, because at night the hormone was produced at a special rate. Before the day of the test, you can not load yourself physically and eat fatty foods. Before taking blood for 30 minutes, the patient should completely relax and, if possible, rest. In order for the results of the analysis for growth hormone to be interpreted correctly by the specialist, he must know which medications the patient uses on an ongoing basis, since some of them affect the analysis indicators.
If the patient is suspected of a decrease in the production of somatotropin in the body, then the analysis is carried out with stimulation. At the same time, nothing is allowed to eat for 12 hours before testing. Before taking blood from a vein, the patient is injected with a special substance that stimulates the production of growth hormone (insulin, arginine). After that, blood sampling is carried out in several stages with equal frequency in order to track all changes in the levels of hormone production.
If the patient is suspected of excessive production of growth hormone in the body, then when studying growth hormone in the body, they artificially try to suppress it. The method of blood sampling remains the same, only drugs for artificially influencing the indicator are replaced – instead of insulin, the patient must drink glucose.
What do high and low results mean?
In a child’s body, it is unacceptable to have a low level of growth hormone. Somatotropin deficiency leads to slow growth, sometimes to dwarfism, delays in the processes of puberty and the overall development of the child. This state of affairs can be provided by hereditary predisposition or pathological processes during pregnancy.
In many situations, with the timely diagnosis of a lack of growth hormone in a child, this problem can be corrected. The patient begins to take synthetic hormonal drugs and gradually catches up with his peers in his own development. At the same time, it is important to understand that speaking about the underdevelopment of growth processes, one should not assume that every person of short stature suffers from some kind of hormonal pathology. Low growth is very often caused by hereditary factors, injuries, and some childhood diseases.
When a low level of growth hormone is detected in an adult, doctors draw conclusions about disturbed metabolic processes in the body, often about the occurrence of osteoporosis.
If the levels of this hormone are higher than normal, then gigantism often occurs in adolescence, and acromegaly in adults. Moreover, these two pathologies differ in that with gigantism, human bones grow in length, and with acromegaly, in width.
In addition, when acromegaly occurs, in addition to bones, soft tissues actively grow in a person, all kinds of neoplasms of the skin and internal organs occur. At the same time, growth is uneven, which leads to the growth of some organs with stable sizes of other parts of the body.
The problem with acromegaly is that the disease is almost impossible to detect in the early stages. An analysis for the content of growth hormone is prescribed by specialists only in cases of pronounced signs of the disease, which can lead to complications such as non-insulin-dependent diabetes, destruction of joint tissue, diseases associated with vision, the formation of intestinal polyps and the occurrence of oncological tumors in the gastrointestinal tract. These complications often lead to death, so the timely diagnosis and treatment of acromegaly becomes the most important task for specialists. Doctors call tumors in the pituitary gland the cause of acromegaly, which is why, as a rule, testing for growth hormone is usually accompanied by other diagnostic measures to help identify neoplasms.
Due to the irreversibility of gigantism, it is important to constantly monitor the content of growth hormone in the human body, if there are even the slightest prerequisites for making such a diagnosis. A blood test for growth hormone helps to determine the functioning of the pituitary gland in a timely manner, to prevent the development of serious diseases and their complications.