[Growth hormone response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia in children with normal stature or normal variant short stature].

Definition of normal values of growth hormone (GH) during insulin-induced hypoglycaemia was based on experience in a group of 30 pre-pubertal children (age range 6.4-16.8 years) with normal stature or with normal variant short stature. The growth velocity was calculated in all children. The maximal GH values to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and the mean GH levels of a 12 hours nocturnal period (sampled at 30-min intervals from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. hours) were also determinated. In a group of 13 children with normal or short stature and normal growth velocity it was established that the GH response in blood higher than 20 mlU/l (10 ng/ml) represents lower limit of normal range and excludes the possibility of GH deficiency. Comparisons of the maximal values of GH to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and mean GH levels during twelve-hour nocturnal period in a group of seventeen short normal children suggested that GH responses to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia between 15 - 20 mlU/l also most frequently represent normal endogenous secretion of GH.