Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare disease characterized by GH and IGF1 hypersecretion and increased cardiovascular mortality. Ultrasonographic measurement of carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) gives substantial information about early atherosclerosis. We aimed to evaluate CIMT and its determinants in a group of acromegaly patient.

Patients and methods: Forty-four acromegaly patient and 43 age, sex and body mass index (BMI) matched healthy controls were included. Blood pressure (BP), BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) measurements; plasma CRP, fibrinogen, lipid, fasting plasma glucose, GH, IGF1, insulin tests; HOMA-IR calculations and CIMT measurements were done.

Results: Right (P=0.017) and left (P=0.025) CIMT were found to be significantly higher in acromegaly group than the healthy controls. Right CIMT correlated positively with age, WHR and CRP; negatively with GH and IGF1. Besides, left CIMT showed positive correlation with age, diastolic BP, WHR, HDL-C and negative with IGF1. The lineer regression analysis demonstrated that while age and CRP was the major determinants of right CIMT, only the age was so for the left CIMT. Both right (P=0.001) and left (P=0.020) CIMT were significantly different among active acromegaly (AA), cured acromegaly (CA) and healthy control groups. Right CIMT was significantly higher in CA group than the AA group and healthy controls and left CIMT was significantly higher in CA group than the healthy controls. The higher mean of age in the CA group is thought to be a possible explanation for the increased CIMT in the CA group.

Conclusion: Studies evaluating CIMT in acromegaly patients have depicted different results so far. In this study, we found increased CIMT in acromegalics. Increased CIMT seems to be solely related to the age of the patient in paralel to previous reports. The disease activity and the other cardiovascular markers like glucose, lipids, BP are not found as confounding factors to increased CIMT.