[Prolactin response to acute administration of growth hormone releasing hormone in patients with uremia].

The Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GH-RH) constitutes the most potent and specific stimulus for Growth Hormone secretion. Nevertheless, in some pathologic situations a Prolactin (PRL) response to GH-RH stimulus is also observed. In order to evaluate the possible effect of GH-RH over seric levels of PRL in uremic patients we carried out a study in a group of ten male patients on hemodialysis (HD), who were given an acute stimulus of GH-RH (an IV 50 mcg. bolus) immediately before and after the HD session, with blood extractions at times -15, 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, and 90 minutes for PRL determinations. The same procedure was carried out in 8 healthy controls. Basal PRL levels in the HD group (14 +/- 3.2 micrograms/L) were significantly greater (p less than 0.01) than control group (3.8 +/- 1.4 micrograms/L). There was no PRL response to GH-RH either in uremic patients before or after HD or in healthy controls. Our results show that there is a significant increase in PRL levels in uremic patients both before and after dialysis with a GH-RH response comparable to healthy subjects.