Morphological changes of the cerebral cortex between children with isolated growth hormone deficiency and idiopathic short stature.

Abstract The growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) axis plays an important role in normal brain development, and GH deficiency inevitably affects the growth of the cerebral cortex. This study was designed to analyze morphological differences in gray matter volume, cortical surface area, and gray matter thickness between children with isolated growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) and children with idiopathic short stature (ISS). Twenty-four children with IGHD (mean age 9.42 years, peak GH 10 μg/l) were included. High-resolution three-dimensional T1-weighted MRIs were acquired at participants’ first visit. Measurements of gray matter volume, cortical surface area and gray matter thickness were obtained using FreeSurfer. The total and regional differences between groups were statistically analyzed. Correlations between the FreeSurfer results and GH and IGF-I levels were also obtained. The gray matter volume, cortical surface area and gray matter thickness of the total brain and of the bilateral hemispheres of children with IGHD were significantly smaller than those of children with ISS (all P values