Endocrinol Metab.  2020 Dec;35(4):954-959. 10.3803/EnM.2020.785.

Reference Ranges of Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I and Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein-3: Results from a Multicenter Study in Healthy Korean Adults

• Jeong IK
• Byun JK
• Noh J
• Kim SW
• Chung YS
• Park TS
• Kim SW

• KMID: 2511023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2020.785

Abstract

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis and treatment of growth hormone (GH) excess or deficiency. The GH study group of the Korean Endocrine Society aims to establish the Korean reference ranges of serum IGF-I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) and assess the relationship between IGF-I and IGFBP-3 and clinical parameters. Fasting serum was collected from healthy Korean adults at health promotion centers of five hospitals nationwide. Serum IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were measured via an immunoradiometric assay using a DSL kit (Diagnostic Systems Laboratories). Serum samples from 354 subjects (180 male, 174 female) were analyzed based on sex at 10-year intervals from 21 to 70 years. IGF-I levels were inversely correlated with age. After adjustment of age, the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio was significantly negatively associated with blood pressure and free thyroxine and positively associated with weight, hemoglobin, creatinine, alanine transferase, fasting glucose, and thyroid stimulating hormone. Therefore, age- and sex-specific reference ranges of serum IGF-I and IGFBP-3 can be efficient in evaluating GH excess or deficiency in Korean population.

Keyword

Insulin-like growth factor I; Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3; Reference values; Growth hormone; Korea

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Individual points and percentiles of (A) insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and (B) insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) by age group. Curves presented the least squares (LS) means of 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 calculated by the generalized additive model (GAM) and quantile regression.

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