everyone is going to say "DOMS IS NO SIGN OF HYPERTROPHY"
BUT
theres a very good chance that soreness is related to growth/
if your doing something that eliminates soreness, its very possible that your also doing something that is eliminating your growth.
As leonp1981 was talking about...
...muscles grow when they're forced to adapt to something. If you curl 45lbs per arm for 8 reps, and then suddenly try 55's for eight, you're biceps will have to adapt to that stress.
If you then decide to jump on a treadmill for an hour, you may not get sore, you my be burning more calories that are needed to visually grow, but the signal of adaptation has been given to your biceps. If you continue to curl (or attempt) the 55's, your biceps will get the continued stimulus to grow (when you read grow, grow=adapt) and they'll still be able to grow if you take in enough calories.
As Dorian Yates once said about how he maintains similar training during his Mr. O diet prep:
"The program that built the muscle will keep the muscle."
As the "natural" guys Willet & LaCour said..."Let the training keep your muscle. And let your diet and cardio shed the body fat."