Abstract

The use of a single, oral, 500-mg dose of l-dopa has been compared to the arginineinsulin test as a stimulus for growth hormone (hGH) release in 15 patients. Whereas l-dopa induced a significant rise in hGH in 5 of 6 normals, it failed to do so in all 3 obese subjects, one patient with short stature and one with an enlarged sella, all of whom responded to arginineinsulin. The response to l-dopa in 2 hypothyroid patients was blunted. The hGH response to l-dopa appears to have limited usefulness in the clinical assessment of pituitary function.

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