Growth hormone for the failing heart

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy is a common cause of heart failure. Despite advances in treatment, this disease has a mean survival time of 5 years (1). Currently, the only effective treatment for end-stage dilated cardio-myopathy is heart transplantation. However, additional, more conservative treatment options are being explored to prolong survival until an organ becomes available or even to obviate the necessity for transplantation. Left ventricular assist devices or partial left ventriculectomy, infusions of catecholamine analogs, and phosphodies-terase inhibitors are among some of the treatment options which are being experimentally evaluated (1 and references therein). In addition to these, growth hormone (GH) has emerged as a candidate for increas-ing cardiac performance, and thus possibly survival, i