A correction to the age-adjustment of the GH-2000 score used in the detection of growth hormone misuse

Abstract

Objective: The GH-2000 score has been developed as a powerful and unique technique to detect growth hormone misuse by sportsmen and women. The score depends upon the measurement of two growth hormone (GH) sensitive markers, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and the amino-terminal pro-peptide of type III collagen (P-III-NP). It has been previously suggested that the score shows a positive age effect in male athletes, which could potentially place older male athletes at a disadvantage. The purpose of this note is to investigate the performance of a previously suggested correction term in two new and larger data sets.

Results: The GH-2000 score was calculated for 7307 samples obtained from 15 accredited WADA laboratories in 2017 and 3916 samples measured at Drug Control Centre, King's College London, UK between 2013 and 2017. The GH-2000 scores were investigated for positive age effects using standard regression modelling. As previously, all analyses confirmed a positive age effect. Applying the earlier suggested correction term of 0.032 x age showed a significant over-correction leading to a negative association of the GH-2000 score with age. We now suggest a smaller age correction of 0.020 x age which corresponds to the smallest effect found in the earlier studies.

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ORCID for Dankmar Bohning: orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-7106

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