Growth hormone and insulin during oxandrolone therapy of stunting

In a group of growth‐retarded children, generally of the constitutional type with height below the tenth or the third percentile, the mean increases in serum growth hormone ohserved between the ½‐ and 2‐hour points of an intravenous tolbutamide tolerance test were ab out the same as those recorded in a control group of normal children. Differences present in the 0 and 15 minute growth hormone values of the 2 groups were not outside the range recorded in control subjects. Also, the mean fasting and posttolbutamide levels of serum insulin, blood sugar, and serum inorganic phosphorus were of the same magnitude in the growth‐retarded and the control groups. Administration of oxandrolone, a protein anabolie steroid with relatively low virilizing properties to growth‐retarded children, at a dosage of 2.5 to 30 mg. per day for 3 months or longer, did not affect the fasting levels of serum insulin, serum inorganic phosphate, or blood sugar, nor the changes in these indices induced by tolbutamide. Growth hormone levels measured during the fasting state also remained unaltered during oxandrolone therapy. Infusion of tolbutamide or of arginine during oxandrolone treatment did not enhance growth hormone responses to these stimuli. Indeed, the peak growth hormone responses to tolbutamide and to arginine were lower during oxandrolone ingestion. In the arginine tests, the decrease in the peak growth hormone response was accompanied by lower peak levels of serum insulin.