Is there a place for urinary growth hormone measurement

The evaluation of growth hormone (GH) secretion is an important problem in pediatric endocrine practice. The diagnosis of GH insufficiency is based on the finding of a «blunted» GH response to GH provocative tests or on the demonstration of a decreased endogenous secretion. From a practical point of view, these methods are uncomfortable, expensive and time consuming. Recently, very sensitive specific assays to measure human GH in urine have been developed. We present a discussion of available data on these tests in order to estimate their role in the evaluation of a short or slowly growing child. The present available assays allow measuring very low levels of GH in a small sample of untreated urine