[Response of growth hormone (GH) to glucagon-propranolol stimulation in diabetic subjects (author's transl)].

The functional study of growth hormone (GH) requires at least three different stimulation tests. To obtain a degree of hypoglycemia good enough to stimulate GH release is difficult in diabetic patients, and this fact has prompted us to utilize the stimulation induced by glucagon-propranolol. The test was performed in 15 diabetic patients and the results compared to those of 15 non-diabetic subjects. In the diabetic patients GH increased after stimulation from a mean basal level of 2.14 ng/ml to 15.32 ng/ml (p less than 0.01). Peak GH levels in plasma were reached between 120 and 180 minutes. Two failures were found and there were only minimal side effects. The results indicate that the test is valuable for the study of GH release in diabetic patients, and that it may substitute for the induction of hypoglycemia, which is more difficult to obtain in these patients. Finally, the results are compared to those obtained by other authors.