Effects of Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy on Bone Mineral Density in Growth Hormone Deficient Adults: A Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Patient characteristics in included studies.

References	Countries	Study subjects	Criteria of GHD	Treatment time	GH usage
Hansen et al., 1996 [13]	Denmark	9 males and 5 females aged 31–57	<10 mU/L in ITT^a	1 yr	2.0 IU/m^2·day
Johannsson et al., 1996 [14]	Sweden	24 males and 20 females aged 23–66	<5 mU/L in ITT	2 yr	First 4 weeks: 0.1 IU/kg·week; Thereafter: 0.25 IU/kg·week
Rodríguez-Arnao et al., 1998 [15]	UK	18 males and 17 females aged 21.1–59.9	<10 mU/L in ITT	1 yr	First 4 weeks: 0.125 IU/kg·week; Thereafter: 0.25 IU/kg·week
Cuneo et al., 1998 [16]	Australia	50 males and 33 females aged 41.2±1.5	<5 mU/L in ITT	1 yr	First month: 0.125 IU/kg·week; Thereafter: 0.25 IU/kg·week
Biller et al., 2000 [17]	USA	38 males aged 48.9±2.0	NA^b	1.5 yr	Initial dose: 10 μg/kg·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Koranyi et al., 2001 [18]	Sweden	28 males and 14 females aged 17–61	NA	5 yr	Initial dose: 0.25 IU/kg·week; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Lanzi et al., 2003 [19]	Italy	10 males and 8 females aged 17–50	<9 μg/L in ARG^c	0.5 yr	Initial dose: 4 μg/kg·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Underwood et al., 2003 [20]	USA	39 males and 25 females aged 23.8±4.2	<5 μg/L in clonidine and L-dopa stimulation tests	2 yr	25 μg/kg·day or; 12.5 μg/kg·day
Hubina et al., 2004 [21]	Hungary	11 males and 9 females aged 22–67	<3 μg/L in ITT or ARG	3 yr	1.2 IU/day (average dose)
Bravenboer et al., 2005 [22]	The Netherlands	38 males aged 20–35	<7 μg/L in ITT or GHRH^d	5 yr	0.67 mg/m^2·day
Arwert et al., 2005 [23]	The Netherlands	23 males aged 20–40	<7 μg/L in ITT or GHRH	10 yr	First 0.5 yr: 1.2 or 3 IU/m^2·day; 0.5–2 yr: 2 IU/m^2·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Boguszewski et al., 2005 [24]	Brazil	7 males and 11 females aged 21–58	<3 μg/L in ITT	1 yr	0.6 IU/day
Benedini et al., 2006 [25]	Italy	6 males and 6 females aged 29–54	<9 μg/L in ARG and GHRH	1 yr	Initial dose: 0.25 mg/day (for men) or 0.4 mg/day (for women); Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Snyder et al., 2007 [26]	USA	20 males and 13 females aged 29–54	<2.4 μg/L in ITT or ARG	2 yr	Initial dose: 2 μg/kg·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Gotherstrom et al., 2007 [27]	Sweden	52 males and 35 females aged 22–74	<3 μg/L in ITT	10 yr	64 patients: the initial dose was 0.25 IU/kg·week and then individualized; 23 patients: the dose was individualized from the start of the treatment
Rota et al., 2008 [28]	Italy	35 males and 29 females aged 30–50	<9 μg/L in ARG and GHRH	2 yr	Initial dose: 4 μg/kg·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Fideleff et al., 2008 [10]	Argentina	22 males and 26 females aged 18–66	<0.14 pmol/L in ITT	4 yr	Initial dose: 0.1 mg/day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Conway et al., 2009 [29]	Australia	65 males and 44 females aged 21.1±2.3	<3 μg/L in ITT	2 yr	Initial dose: 0.2 mg/day (for men) or 0.4 mg/day (for women); Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
van den Heijkant et al., 2011 [11]	The Netherlands	12 males and 8 females aged 23.9±3.0	<3 μg/L in ITT	2 yr	Initial dose: 0.1 mg/m^2·day; Then adjusted accordingly to the serum IGF-I values
Elbornsson et al., 2012 [30]	Sweden	72 males and 54 females aged 22–74	<3 μg/L in ITT or GHRH	15 yr	64 patients: the initial dose was 0.25 IU/kg·week and then individualized; 62 patients: the dose was individualized from the start of the treatment

aInsulin tolerance test; ^bnot available; ^carginine test; ^dGH-releasing hormone.