Pituitary Disorders

Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in adults is characterized by alterations in body composition, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, bone mineral density, cardiovascular risk profile, and quality of life. Treatment with GH replacement has been shown to improve many, but not all, of these abnormalities. By contrast, untreated GHD is associated with increased mortality and morbidity that was previously observed in adults with hypopituitarism. These findings were substantiated in two large surveys based on national Danish registries, where the morbidity of adults with GHD was found to be approximately threefold higher than that of a healthy population. This result was independent of gender and applied to patients with childhood-onset and adult-onset GHD, with mortality of childhoodonset GHD far exceeding that of adult-onset GH deficient patients.