Serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein-2 levels as an indicator of functional ability in elderly men

BACKGROUND: In a cross-sectional study in 403 healthy, independently living elderly men (mean age 78 years), we determined which are the main physiological determinants of functional ability in the elderly, and which components of the somatotropic system contribute to the maintenance of functional ability. METHODS: Functional ability was assessed by the number of problems in activities of daily living and by a measure of physical performance. Other physical characteristics included leg extensor strength, bone mineral density of total body and proximal femur, and body composition, including lean mass and fat mass. Serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and its binding proteins (IGFBP) -1, -2 and -3 concentrations were all measured by RIA. RESULTS: Muscle strength was related to a lower degree of disability. Further, it was positively related to physical performance and bone mineral density (all P<0.001). Fat mass influenced activities of daily living and physical performance negatively and bone mineral density positively (all P<0.001). Serum concentrations of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were not related to any of the physical characteristics. High serum IGFBP-2 concentrations were related to a higher degree of disability (P<0.001), a lower physical performance (P=0.006), muscle strength (P=0.002), bone mineral density of proximal femur (P=0.007), lean mass and fat mass (both P<0.001). Serum insulin and IGFBP-1 concentrations were independently, positively related to lean mass (P=0.003) and fat mass (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In independently living elderly men, functional ability appears to be determined by muscle strength (positive) and fat mass (negative). Low serum IGFBP-2 concentrations are a powerful indicator for overall good physical functional status, probably inversely reflecting the integrated sum of nutrition and the biological effects of growth hormone, IGF-I and insulin

Use of human GH in elderly patients with accidental hip fracture

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether early intervention with recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) after hip fracture improves functional recovery and long-term outcome. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Functional recovery after hip fracture is often incomplete. The catabolic situation that develops after the hip fracture accident, and a state of malnutrition either pre-existing or developing after surgery, are main contributing factors for the poor clinical outcome. hGH has been used to promote anabolism in a variety of clinical catabolic situations. The study design was randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. A total of 111 patients older than 60 years with an accidental hip fracture (mean age 78.5+/-9.1 (s.d.) years) were randomized to receive either hGH (20 microg/kg per day) or placebo for a period of 6 weeks, starting within 24 h after the hip fracture accident. Thereafter patients were followed up for an additional period of 18 weeks. Efficacy was assessed by comparing the changes in the Barthel Index score of activities of daily living and in a patient's living situation between the hGH- and the placebo-treated subjects. RESULTS: Eighty-five (78.5%) patients completed the first 8 weeks of the study and 76 (68.5%) the entire study period of 24 weeks. When split according to age, a trend was found that for patients older than 75 years the changes in Barthel Index score from baseline were less in the hGH group than in the placebo group (-18.6+/-18 vs -28.1+/-26) at 6 weeks after surgery (P<0.075). There was an overall trend to a higher rate of return to the pre-fracture independent living situation in the hGH group than in the placebo group. Analysis by age revealed a significantly higher proportion of hGH- than placebo-treated patients returning to the pre-fracture living situation for subjects older than 75 years (93.8 vs 75.0%, P=0.034). hGH treatment increased IGF-I values to levels in the range of those of normal subjects of 50-60 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: A 6 week treatment with hGH (20 microg/kg per day) of otherwise healthy patients after an accidental hip fracture may be of benefit if given to subjects older than 75 years of age. The rate of return to the pre-fracture living situation in subjects of this age treated with hGH was significantly increased when compared with the placebo-treated group. The treatment intervention was well tolerated and no safety issues were recorded

A novel method for adult height prediction in children with idiopathic short stature derived from a German-Dutch cohort

Context: Prediction of adult height (AH) is important in clinical management of short children. The conventional methods of Bayley-Pinneau (BP) or Roche-Wainer-Thissen (RWT) have limitations. Objective: We aimed to develop a set of algorithms for AH prediction in patients with idiopathic short stature (ISS) which are specific for combinations of predicting variables. Methods: Demographic and auxologic data were collected in childhood (1980s) and at AH (1990s). Data were collected by Dutch and German referral centers for pediatric endocrinology. A total of 292 subjects with ISS (219 male, 73 female) were enrolled. The population was randomly split into modeling (n = 235) and validation (n = 57) cohorts. Linear multi-regression analysis was performed with predicted AH (PAH) as response variable and combinations of chronological age (CA), baseline height, parental heights, relative bone age (BA/CA), birth weight, and sex as exploratory variables. Results: Ten models including different exploratory variables were selected with adjusted R-2 ranging from 0.84 to 0.78 and prediction errors from 3.16 to 3.68 cm. Applied to the validation cohort, mean residuals (PAH minus observed AH) ranged from -0.29 to -0.82 cm, while the conventional methods showed some overprediction (BP: +0.53 cm; RWT: +1.33 cm; projected AH: +3.81 cm). There was no significant trend of residuals with PAH or any exploratory variables, in contrast to BP and projected AH. Conclusion: This set of 10 multi-regression algorithms, developed specifically for children with ISS, provides a flexible tool for AH prediction with better accuracy than the conventional methods.Developmen

Safety Outcomes and Near-Adult Height Gain of Growth Hormone-Treated Children with SHOX Deficiency: Data from an Observational Study and a Clinical Trial

Background/Aims: To assess auxological and safety data for growth hormone (GH)-Treated children with SHOX deficiency. Methods: Data were examined for GH-Treated SHOX-deficient children (n = 521) from the observational Genetics and Neuroendocrinology of Short Stature International Study (GeNeSIS). For patients with near-Adult height information, GeNeSIS results (n = 90) were compared with a clinical trial (n = 28) of SHOX-deficient patients. Near-Adult height was expressed as standard deviation score (SDS) for chronological age, potentially increasing the observed effect of treatment. Results: Most SHOX-deficient patients in GeNeSIS had diagnoses of Leri-Weill syndrome (n = 292) or non-syndromic short stature (n = 228). For GeNeSIS patients with near-Adult height data, mean age at GH treatment start was 11.0 years, treatment duration 4.4 years, and height SDS gain 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.49-1.17). Respective ages, GH treatment durations and height SDS gains for GeNeSIS patients prepubertal at baseline (n = 42) were 9.2 years, 6.0 years and 1.19 (0.76-1.62), and for the clinical trial cohort they were 9.2 years, 6.0 years and 1.25 (0.92-1.58). No new GH-related safety concerns were identified. Conclusion: Patients with SHOX deficiency who had started GH treatment before puberty in routine clinical practice had a similar height gain to that of patients in the clinical trial on which approval for the indication was based, with no new safety concerns

Growth hormone treatment in growth-retarded adolescents after renal transplant

Growth failure is a psychosocial problem for many patients who have undergone renal transplantation. 18 adolescents (mean age 15 6, range 11·3-19 5) with severe growth retardation after renal transplantation were treated with biosynthetic growth hormone (GH) for 2 years. All received prednisone, administered daily or on alternate days, with azathioprine and/or cyclosporin A. 16 were blindly assigned to one of two GH doses (4 vs 8 IU per m2 per day). Growth, bone maturation, renal graft function, plasma insulin-like growth factors, serum binding proteins, and other biochemical parameters were checked regularly. Glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow were tested with 125I-Thalamate and 131I-Hippuran. Data on growth and glomerular filtration rate during GH treatment were also compared with those of matched non-GH-treated controls. Mean (standard deviation) increment in height after 2 years of GH was 15·7 (5·1) cm, significantly greater (p25% reduction in glomerular filtration rate over 2 years was not significantly higher in GH-treated patients than in non-GH-treated controls (39% vs 32%, p=0·97). Although a few patients had deterioration of graft function, we could not find a relation with GH treatment. Our results show that sustained improvement of height can be achieved with GH in severely growth-retarded adolescents after renal transplantation

A Measurement of Psi(2S) Resonance Parameters

Cross sections for e+e- to hadons, pi+pi- J/Psi, and mu+mu- have been measured in the vicinity of the Psi(2S) resonance using the BESII detector operated at the BEPC. The Psi(2S) total width; partial widths to hadrons, pi+pi- J/Psi, muons; and corresponding branching fractions have been determined to be Gamma(total)= (264+-27) keV; Gamma(hadron)= (258+-26) keV, Gamma(mu)= (2.44+-0.21) keV, and Gamma(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (85+-8.7) keV; and Br(hadron)= (97.79+-0.15)%, Br(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (32+-1.4)%, Br(mu)= (0.93+-0.08)%, respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Stable isotope food-web analysis and mercury biomagnification in polar bears ( Ursus maritimus )

Mercury (Hg) biomagnification occurs in many ecosystems, resulting in a greater potential for toxicological effects in higher-level trophic feeders. However, Hg transport pathways through different food-web channels are not well known, particularly in high-latitude systems affected by the atmospheric Hg deposition associated with snow and ice. Here, we report on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, and Hg concentrations, determined for 26, late 19th and early 20th century, polar bear ( Ursus maritimus ) hair specimens, collected from catalogued museum collections. These data elucidate relationships between the high-latitude marine food-web structure and Hg concentrations in polar bears. The carbon isotope compositions of polar bear hairs suggest that polar bears derive nutrition from coupled food-web channels, based in pelagic and sympagic primary producers, whereas the nitrogen isotope compositions indicate that polar bears occupy > fourth-level trophic positions. Our results show a positive correlation between polar bear hair Hg concentrations and δ 15 N. Interpretation of the stable isotope data in combination with Hg concentrations tentatively suggests that polar bears participating in predominantly pelagic food webs exhibit higher mercury concentrations than polar bears participating in predominantly sympagic food webs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73930/1/j.1751-8369.2009.00114.x.pd

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio