[Diagnostic means to exclude deficient secretion of growth hormone in paediatric practice (author's transl)]

Growth hormone serum levels were measured radioimmunologically in 365 children with stunted growth before and after 10 minutes of stair-climbing, and in 134 children before and after 10 minutes of physical stress produced by means of a bicycle ergometer. Only 20% of the children had a growth hormone level of more than 5 ng/ml before initiation of the study. After climbing the stairs, the hormone level rose in 160 children to more than 5 ng/ml (max. 41.1 ng/ml). Growth hormone deficiency could thus be definitively eliminated as the cause of retarded growth in only 46% of the patients. In 16 (of 22) children of normal size, in 34 (of 49) chilkren with arrested growth who had a corresponding familial background, and in 33 (of 57) children with constitutionally conditioned retarded development, the growth hormone content after exercise on an rose to more than 5 ng/ml. Hence, a total of 65% of the children showed a satisfactory increase of the growth hormone. It follows from this that the ergometer exercise test is more suitable that the stair-climbing test to exclude hormone deficiency as the cause of stunted growth, and can, therefore, be recommended for use in paediatric practice as a supplementary examination method besides clinical findings, case history and determination of the growth rate.