The largest study of its kind, designed to track the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people who received human growth hormone from cadavers, has found that the vast majority of those who received the hormone did not contract the fatal condition. However, some recipients (26 out of approximately 7,700) did develop the disease.
A larger number (59) died from adrenal crisis, a sometimes-fatal complication that can be prevented if it is recognized and treated promptly.
Adrenal crisis does not affect all patients who require growth hormone, but may occur in a subgroup of patients whose pituitary gland fails to make not only growth hormone but also the hormone needed to regulate the adrenal glands.
Human growth hormone is now manufactured synthetically, and
the synthetic form does not transmit Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). The study tracks individuals who received cadaver-derived human growth hormone, to determine their risk of developing CJD and to observe their health status.
The federal study's findings appear in the April "Journal of Pediatrics". It was conducted by scientists at several agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At the National Institutes of Health, researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, took part in the study. Researchers from two other HHS agencies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also participated, as did the research corporation Westat.