Oral glucose tests (OGTT) were performed in 35 patients with Turner syndrome before and during a 4-year period of growth hormone treatment to investigate the relation between glucose tolerance and GH treatment.
Two out of 35 (5.7%) patients exhibited impaired glucose tolerance (IGT: blood glucose at 120 minutes>140mg/dl) prior to GH treatment. Out of the 33 patients with a normal OGTT prior to GH treatment, 10 patients (30.3%) developed IGT during the 4-year GH treatment period. This percentage was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that of untreated Turner patients in the same age group, described in Part I of this report.
EIRI during GH treatment was significantly greater than that before treatment, and HOMA-R increased significantly after two years of treatment, compared with that prior to treatment. BMI also increased signifi-cantly after three years of treatment.
These data demonstrate that the percentage of patients with IGT increased during GH treatment and sug-gest that insulin resistance contributes to the occurrence of IGT in Turner syndrome. Since the GH dosage for patients with Turner syndrome is higher and the GH treatment period tends to be longer than that for patients with GH deficiency, Turner syndrome patients should be carefully investigated for impared glucose tolerance during and after GH treatment.