Department of Pediatrics, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
J Trop Pediatr. 2009 Oct;55(5):307-12. doi: 10.1093/tropej/fmp012. Epub 2009 Mar 4.
Ghrelin is a novel growth hormone-releasing peptide that causes a positive energy balance by stimulating food intake and inducing adiposity and has effects on growth. Many children with congenital heart disease (CHD) present with growth retardation and malnutrition owing to multifactorial reasons.
To evaluate the circulating level of ghrelin in Egyptian children with congenital cyanotic and acyanotic heart disease and its relation to anthropometric measurements.
The study included 40 patients with cyanotic and acyanotic CHD (18 cyanotic and 22 acyanotic) and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy control children. All children were subjected to measurement of height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and serum ghrelin was measured using ELISA technique.
Weight, height and BMI were significantly lower in cyanotic and acyanotic patients compared to the control group (p = 0.0001). Serum ghrelin levels were significantly higher in children with cyanotic and acyanotic CHD in comparison to the controls (p = 0.0001). There was a significant negative correlation between ghrelin and BMI in the three groups (r = -0.534, p = 0.023; r = -0.558, p = 0.007; r = -0.608, p = 0.007 respectively for cyanotic, acyanotic and the control groups).
Circulating ghrelin level was elevated in children with congenital cyanotic and acyanotic heart disease, and was associated with a decrease in BMI. This elevation in ghrelin level may represent malnutrition and growth retardation in those patients as obvious by anthropometric measures too. This may suggest that ghrelin may have an important role as a compensatory mechanism in the regulation of the metabolic balance in them.
Ghrelin 是一种新型的生长激素释放肽，通过刺激食欲和诱导肥胖来产生正能平衡，并且对生长有影响。许多患有先天性心脏病 (CHD) 的儿童由于多种因素而存在生长迟缓和营养不良。
评估埃及先天性青紫型和非青紫型心脏病儿童的循环 ghrelin 水平及其与人体测量学指标的关系。
本研究纳入了 40 例青紫型和非青紫型 CHD 患儿（18 例青紫型和 22 例非青紫型）和 18 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照儿童。所有儿童均接受身高、体重、体重指数 (BMI) 的测量，并使用 ELISA 技术测量血清 ghrelin。
青紫型和非青紫型患儿的体重、身高和 BMI 均明显低于对照组（p = 0.0001）。青紫型和非青紫型 CHD 患儿的血清 ghrelin 水平明显高于对照组（p = 0.0001）。三组间 ghrelin 与 BMI 呈显著负相关（r = -0.534，p = 0.023；r = -0.558，p = 0.007；r = -0.608，p = 0.007，分别为青紫型、非青紫型和对照组）。
先天性青紫型和非青紫型心脏病儿童的循环 ghrelin 水平升高，并与 BMI 下降有关。这种 ghrelin 水平的升高可能代表了这些患者的营养不良和生长迟缓，也可以通过人体测量学指标明显体现。这表明 ghrelin 可能在调节代谢平衡方面发挥重要作用，作为一种代偿机制。
