PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - ANTONIO CULEBRAS
AU  - STEPHEN PODOLSKY
AU  - NORMAN A. LEOPOLD
TI  - Absence of sleep‐related growth hormone elevations in myotonic dystrophy
AID  - 10.1212/WNL.27.2.165
DP  - 1977 Feb 01
TA  - Neurology
PG  - 165--165
VI  - 27
IP  - 2
4099  - http://n.neurology.org/content/27/2/165.short
4100  - http://n.neurology.org/content/27/2/165.full
SO  - Neurology1977 Feb 01; 27
AB  - There is evidence that in myotonic dystrophy, the endocrine and central nervous systems are affected. To study a possible relationship between both defects, we investigated nocturnal sleep patterns and associated growth hormone secretion in two men and three women with myotonic dystrophy. In three patients who were clinically the most severely affected by myotonic dystrophy, plasma growth hormone elevations related to the slow-wave phase of sleep were absent. The two least severely affected patients had plasma growth hormone increases of low magnitude and brief duration (from 0.4 ng per milliliter to 13.0 ng per milliliter). These data suggest a failure of integration at a subcortical level of the slow-wave phase of sleep with the hypothalamic-pituitary mechanisms of growth hormone secretion. Thalamic neuronal lesions occurring in myotonic dystrophy could be responsible for such failure.