ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The concern about growth hormone, used for treatment of growth hormone deficiency, wasting diseases, is increasing recently. There is much to be desired about the study for the reference range of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) of Korean healthy adults, because there was a lack of studies of IGF-1 level. The authors investigated the concentration of IGF-1 according to age groups, and its correlation factors in healthy adults in Korea. METHODS: The subjects were 10,681 Korean healthy adults (5,263 females, 5,418 males) aged over 20 years, who visited the Department of Family Practice and Community Health in a university hospital from March 1998 to December 2003. We excluded the subjects with DM, liver diseases, renal diseases, thyroid diseases, and cancer. We measured the serum IGF-1, fasting glucose, lipid profile, serum albumin, protein, waist circumference, hip circumference, and body mass index. RESULTS: IGF-1 level showed gender difference (184.6 +/- 86.3 ng/mL for men, 178.6 +/- 91.8 ng/mL for women) and decreased significantly with age. Age was the most reliable correlation factor with IGF-1 (R: -0.325 for men, R: -0.463 for women). After adjusting fot age and weight, IGF-1 showed correlations with total protein, albumin, creatinine, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol for men and height, waist circumference, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, total protein, albumin, creatinine, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol for women. CONCLUSION: IGF-1 concentration decreased with age over 20 years old. It showed the highest correlation with age in both gender.