Blood tests may help determine which older women are at higher risk for disability and death.(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Older women with abnormal levels of two substances - a growth hormone and a biological marker tied to inflammation - may be at higher risk for becoming disabled or dying, according to the results of a new study. The study, led by a University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher, was presented in June 2002 at a national endocrinology conference in San Francisco, California.

Using data from a 3-year study of 718 women over age 65 with physical disabilities, researchers found that those who had low levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and high levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) were more likely to have serious problems walking and caring for themselves than women with normal test results.

"These women were also twice as likely to die within 5 years compared to those with normal levels of IGF-1 and IL-6," said the lead investigator, Anne R. Cappola, MD, ScM, an endocrinologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"We do not know whether the abnormal levels contribute to the decline in health of elderly women or are just markers," she said. "If they are a cause, some kind of intervention or drug therapy might help those at risk. It could be that they just need to be monitored more closely."

But, she added, if the abnormal levels are only markers, that would still help to identify patients at risk of developing problems.

"Because it is an observational study, we can't prove cause and effect. But if other studies confirm our findings, testing for IGF-1 and IL-6 could be clinically useful in the future to identify older people at risk for disabilities and death," said Cappola, who presented the results at ENDO 2002, the 84th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Cappola and researchers from the National Institute on Aging and the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions looked at levels of IGF-1 and IL-6 in 718 moderately to severely disabled women, who took part in the Women's Health and Aging Study I. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, was conducted from 1992 to 1995 in Baltimore.