New Criteria for Evaluation of Acromegaly

The introduction of radioimmunoassay methods for growth hormone (GH) in human plasma in the early 1960's greatly improved the evaluation of patients with acromegaly. It was soon appreciated that many patients whose disease was considered to be clinically inactive still had elevated plasma GH levels; other patients with residual stigmata of acromegaly were found to have little detectable GH in their plasma, owing to spontaneous infarction of adenomas or treatment.A small percentage of patients have GH levels that are barely elevated despite signs of persistent disease. It is difficult to define what is or is not a normal basal . . .