Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

IGF1 is responsible for regulation of growth, metabolism, and differentiation of human cells. Levels of IGF1 decrease with age. Serum levels of IGF1 are commonly used for monitoring growth hormone production in children and adults with growth disorders. Several studies have also related IGF1 serum levels with risk for certain malignant tumors as well as for various other clinical disorders. We examined a group of 1022 subjects and we created a file of reference ranges for the adult population across the age spectrum. Since this time many papers studying the relationship between the values, age, gender and geographical location have been published. Reference ranges as function of age and gender are very important for interpretation of IGF1 results. IGF1 levels are regulated and influenced by multiple factors. The most frequent are genetic factors, nutritional status and different hormone production, for example, cortisol, thyroxine, and sex hormones. These factors must be taken into consideration, and the selection criteria for the right probands have to be applied very carefully. All patients with diabetes mellitus, renal diseases, diseases of the pituitary gland, benign and malignant tumors and liver diseases were excluded from the study. We tested different statistical approaches. Linear regression model with age as independent variable fitted by gender appeared to be a robust model with similar results as non-parametric and the parametric method. If we compare two group of patients, and the biomarker is age depending, the age adjustment have to be always used. If the age adjustment is not applicated, we can do wrong conclusions based on the precisely measured results.

Biography

Email: kucerar@fnplzen.cz