Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2016) 41 EP906 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.41.EP906

13rd Department of Internal Medicine, University of Athens, Sotiria General Hospital, Athens, Greece; 2Department of Endocrinology, Metaxa Anticancer Hospital, Athens, Pireaus, Greece; 3Department of Endocrinology, Red Cross Hospital, Athens, Greece; 4Department of Internal Medicine, University of Athens, Attikon Hospital, Athens, Greece.


Objective: Quality of life is currently considered a major factor in the assessment of disease outcome. The aim was to assess quality of life in acromegaly and the effect of somatostatin analogues on it.

Design: This study included 101 patients with acromegaly, mean age 59.51±1.35 years (mean ± S.E.M.), with a disease duration of 12.88±0.96 years. All subjects completed the Acromegaly Quality of Life Questionnaire (AcroQoL) which is a disease-specific questionnaire for patients with acromegaly. It contains 22 questions with five possible responses. Each response is scored from 1 to 5 and the maximum score is 110 whereas the minimum score is 22. A group of 27 patients were treated initially with a somatostatin analogue s.c. in 3 divided daily doses and subsequently long acting somatostatin analogues, whereas 72 were treated with long acting somatostatin analogues as a primary medical treatment.

Results: Quality of life as assessed by AcroQol was found to be impaired in acromegaly. The administration of somatostatin analogues was found to improve quality of life in acromegaly. Acromegalics showed a mean total AcroQoL score of 53.22±1.87 (mean ± S.E.M.) before treatment. Total AcroQol after treatment was 73.59±2.97 for patients who initially received somatostatin analogues 3 times daily (n=27), and 86.15±1.37 for all the patients who received long acting somatostatin analogues once per 28 days (27 patients who first received short acting and 72 patients who received long acting somatostatin analogues as a primary treatment) (P<0.001)

Conclusions: Quality of life is impaired in acromegaly. The administration of somatostatin analogues is related with better quality of life. Long acting somatostatin analogues improve quality of life more than short acting somatostatin analogues.

Article tools

My recent searches

No recent searches.