Growth hormone deficient patients after traumatic brain injury--baseline characteristics and benefits after growth hormone replacement--an analysis of the German KIMS database.

OBJECTIVE: In recent years, traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been identified as a significant cause of growth hormone deficiency (GHD). The aim of the present study was to characterize adult TBI patients with GHD to elucidate the effect of human growth hormone (hGH) replacement in TBI patients as documented in the German Pfizer International Metabolic (KIMS) database.

DESIGN: As of October 2006, 84 TBI patients had been included in the German KIMS database (n=28 childhood-onset and 54 adult-onset GHD). All 84 TBI patients were matched with 84 patients with GHD due to non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA) also included in this database. Analysis of clinical and outcome variables was performed, with comparisons of childhood vs. adult TBI, and TBI vs. NFPA patients, at baseline and one-year follow-up.

RESULTS: TBI patients with GHD were significantly younger at the onset of pituitary disease and exhibited a significantly longer time span between GHD diagnosis and KIMS entry than NFPA patients. Those KIMS patients who had sustained their TBI in childhood were of significantly shorter stature than adult-onset TBI patients. At 1-year follow-up, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) standard deviation score levels had returned to the normal range and quality of life (QoL), as measured by QoL- Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (AGHDA) questionnaire, improved significantly in TBI as in NFPA patients.

CONCLUSION: This analysis provides preliminary data that TBI patients with GHD benefit from hGH replacement in terms of improved QoL in a similar fashion as do NFPA patients. Moreover, it suggests that belated diagnosis and treatment in childhood-onset GHD due to TBI might be related to a shorter final height in these children.