In patients with acromegaly, what is true about the assessment of GH levels?

In the assessment of growth hormone (GH) levels in patients with acromegaly, the use of a glucose suppression test is a critical step. In acromegaly, which is often caused by a growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenoma, normal regulation of GH is disrupted. A significant characteristic of GH in acromegalic patients is that it does not adequately suppress in response to glucose intake. The glucose suppression test involves administering a glucose load and measuring GH levels. In healthy individuals, GH levels should significantly decrease after glucose ingestion, while in patients with acromegaly, GH levels often remain elevated, indicating an abnormal response.

The other options do not accurately reflect the characteristics of GH assessment in acromegaly. For instance, while fasting GH levels can be elevated in some cases, they are not always elevated in all patients, and thus a normal fasting GH level doesn’t definitively provide information regarding the presence of acromegaly. Additionally, patients with acromegaly typically have elevated levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), rather than lower levels, as IGF-1 is stimulated by GH and serves as an indicator of GH activity over a longer time frame. Therefore, the