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Reported Outcome

Lean Mass

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A reported outcome category covering measured change in non-fat tissue: fat-free mass or lean soft tissue on DEXA, muscle cross-sectional area, or nitrogen balance. It records the direction and size of a measured change in tissue, not strength and not appearance. Fat-free mass includes water, so a rise measured within days is usually fluid rather than muscle protein.

Why it matters here

Many growth-hormone-axis records report a rise in fat-free mass that is substantially water retention, so whether the source measured lean tissue directly or inferred it is the difference between a high and a low rung.

What it is not

Lean mass is not strength: a measured increase in tissue does not establish an increase in force produced, and studies often find one without the other. It is also not hypertrophy in the histological sense, which needs muscle fibre measurement rather than a whole-body scan.

Also called

Several aliases here are not outcomes at all. Pulsatile GH release, GH restoration and daily-cadence GHRH describe a hormone pattern or a dosing cadence, which is mechanism and protocol language rather than anything measured in tissue.

Compounds carrying this term

None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.

See also