SERUM INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH-FACTOR-I IN A RANDOM-POPULATION SAMPLE OF MEN AND WOMEN - RELATION TO AGE, SEX, SMOKING-HABITS, COFFEE CONSUMPTION AND PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY, BLOOD-PRESSURE AND CONCENTRATIONS OF PLASMA-LIPIDS, FIBRINOGEN, PARATHYROID-HORMONE AND OSTEOCALCIN

OBJECTIVE There is a clinical need for population based reference valu es for serum insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). We have therefore d etermined serum IGF-I concentrations in a random population sample fro m Sweden and have related the levels to age, sex, life style factors, blood pressure, body composition, blood lipids, plasma fibrinogen, par athyroid hormone (PTH) and osteocalcin. PATIENTS Within the framework of the WHO MONICA Project in the city of Goteborg, Sweden, 197 men and 195 women aged 25-64 years were studied. RESULTS Women aged 25-34 yea rs had higher IGF-I concentration than men (mean 278 vs 227 mu g/l) bu t in the interval 55-64 years values were lower in women than in men ( 158 vs 171 mu g/l). IGF-I correlated positively with height and invers ely with age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and total chole sterol in both sexes. Negative relations between IGF-I and high densit y lipoprotein-cholesterol, as well as with amount of tobacco smoked, w ere found in men, and between IGF-I and diastolic blood pressure, trig lycerides and PTH in women. When age was allowed for in multivariate a nalyses, most of these relations disappeared. However, among men IGF-I was positively associated with fibrinogen and negatively with age and smoking. IGF-I was negatively associated with age and coffee consumpt ion in women. CONCLUSION The present data can be used as reference val ues for IGF-I (at least in Caucasians) for the diagnosis of growth hor mone disturbances and as guidelines for growth hormone substitution.