Does growth hormone influence the severity of phosphopenic rickets?

The severity of bone disease in phosphopenic rickets is not correlated with serum phosphate levels. In order to determine whether growth hormone (GH) secretion may influence rachitic changes, we evaluated the 24 h integrated concentration of growth hormone (IC-GH) in five children with phosphopenic rickets. Two patients with marked clinical and roentgenographic rachitic abnormalities had normal IC-GH levels. In contrast, three patients with low IC-GH levels had mild rachitic changes. We suggest that the level of spontaneous GH secretion may be one factor which influences the severity of phosphopenic rickets.