The insulin-glucose tolerance test in pituitary growth retardation.

The differential diagnosis of growth retardation has become of great importance in the past few years, since human growth hormone (HGH) treatment has become available to patients with pituitary dwarfism. The diagnosis of low birthweight dwarfism (Black, 1961) is usually easy, but before puberty the differentiation ofconstitutionally retarded growth (Wilkins, 1957) from pituitary dwarfism may be very difficult. The insulin tolerance test has proved, in our experience, a useful supplement to other tests in the selection of patients for HGH treatment, despite the contrary conclusions of some other workers (Colombo, Richterich, Rossi, and Feinsmith, 1962). In this paper we give our experience with the insulinglucose test, comparing its usefulness with that of other tests of endocrine function.