Why the study?
Does altered plasma growth hormone level predict postoperative complications earlier than established markers in postoperative patients?
Does altered plasma growth hormone level predict postoperative complications earlier than established markers in postoperative patients?
Rapid postoperative elevation of plasma growth hormone concentration may serve as an earlier marker for postoperative complications than established predictors like lactate.
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May signal early postoperative risk in one case; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before any clinical adoption.
We compared the onset of predictors for postoperative complications (lactate, total T2 (tT2), total T4 (tT4) and cortisone) retrospectively with the onset of altered growth hormone (GH) concentration in a patient who had had a lethal postoperative outcome and in 13 patients who were without postoperative complications for a period of 24 hours postoperatively. Compared with the values of the patients without postoperative complications, GH values were elevated (68-fold) 1 h after surgery to 103 ng/ml and lactate was increased (12-fold) to 12.7 mmol/l at 6 h postoperatively in the patient with the lethal outcome. The other parameters measured (tT3, tT4 and cortisone) showed no rapid alteration during the first hours postoperatively. This case report suggests that the rapid postoperative onset of raised GH concentration in plasma may be an earlier marker for postoperative complications than the 'established' predictors.
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Rümelin et al. (2001) studied this question.
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