Koizumi M, Konishi A, Etani Y, et al. - Findings demonstrate lower insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) standard deviation score (SDS) in very young children with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) independent of anthropometric parameters and nutritional status, indicating that hypothalamic dysfunction of growth hormone (GH) secretion exists in these patients.

• This retrospective analysis was performed to compare IGF-1 levels in PWS children (n = 65, median age; 14.0 months) vs controls (n = 111, 14.3 months) matched for age, gender, anthropometric parameters, and nutritional status.

• Post-adjustment for confounding variables, significantly lower IGF-1 SDS was detected in PWS patients vs controls (−1.56 vs −1.01, p = .003), while it did not differ between GH-sufficient and GH-deficient PWS cases.

• No link was revealed between age and IGF-1 SDS both in control and PWS groups, in correlation analysis.