Sex Hormone Profiles in Spinal Cord-Injured Patients.

, Shin, Ji Cheol; , Park, Chang Il; , Rha, Dong Wook; , Chon, Joongson; , Kim, Jung Eun; , Jeon, Sang Chul; , Jung, Tae Ho

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine 2004;28(3):226-231.

Shin, Ji Cheol , Park, Chang Il , Rha, Dong Wook , Chon, Joongson , Kim, Jung Eun , Jeon, Sang Chul , Jung, Tae Ho

¹Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Research Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea. medicus@yumc.yonsei.ac.kr
²Hansarang Asan General Hospital, Korea.

척수손상 환자에서 성 호르몬 수치의 변화

신지철, 박창일, 나동욱, 전중선¹, 김정은, 전상철, 정태호

연세대학교 의과대학 재활의학교실 및 재활의학연구소, ¹한사랑 아산병원

Abstract

Objective
It is known that spinal cord injury (SCI) in adult men may result in sex hormonal changes. To investigate this change, we compared sex hormone levels of male SCI patients, uninjured normal, and infertile subjects.
Method
Serum levels of follicular-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin, testosterone were determined in 67 male SCI patients, 20 uninjured normal men and 39 idiopathic infertile men. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were performed with a significance level of 0.05.
Results
Compared with normal and infertile control groups, SCI patients had lower levels of testosterone and higher levels of prolactin. FSH levels of SCI patients were only lower than those of infertile controls. LH levels of SCI patients showed no significant difference. Compared with hormone levels of acute SCI patients, those of chronic SCI patients showed a tendency to increase in FSH, LH and testosterone, and a tendency to decrease in prolactin. Etiology of injury, completeness of injury and voiding method for neurogenic bladder did not influence the sex hormone levels in SCI patients.
Conclusion
In our study, male SCI patients showed sex hormonal abnormalities of hypothalamo-pituitary type. And elevated serum prolactin level might influence hormonal changes and sexual dysfunction in male SCI patients. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2004; 28: 226-231)

Key Words: Spinal cord injury, Follicular-stimulating hormone, Luteinizing hormone, Prolactin, Testosterone