Acid-base Homeostasis in Children With Growth Hormone Deficiency

t o determine whether children with conclusion: the lower plasma bicarbonate con- t growth hormone deficiency (ghd) centrations in patients with ghd as compared tohave lower mean serum bicarbonate with idopathatic short stature patients demonconcentrationsthan do children with strate a possible role for growth hormone in theshort stature due to other causes. modulation of acid-base homeostasis.materials and methods: we evaluated one hundredshort stature children, aged 5 to 15 years, attendingthe children's endocrine clinic at motahariclinic, shiraz, iran, over a 6 month period.demographic data and clinical features were recorded,laboratory investigations were performed,and bone ages were calculated. ghdwas defined as serum gh concentration :510ng/ml in response to l-dopa and clonidine, inaddition a thorough work-up was performed toexclude any other known clinical conditions thatmight lead to growth retardation.results: thirty one patients (31%) had ghd, 69(69%) were not gh deficient, and one case hadpanhypopituitarism. serum bicarbonate concentrationswere significantly lower in ghd comparedwith non-ghd patients (15.68±2.79 versus17.98±3.79 meqfl, p=0.003). on the other hand, 52(75%) ghd subjects and 22 (71%) non-ghd hadarterial blood ph values below 7.35, the differencenot being statistically significant. all ghdpatients had abnormal serum bicarbonate levelsversus 87% of non-ghd cases (p<0.05). ghdand non-ghd groups were comparable regardingmean age, sex, height sds, bmi, severity ofbone age delay, fasting blood sugar, serum cortisollevel, and thyroid function test results