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Endocrine Abstracts (2013) 32 P842 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.32.P842

Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.


Introduction: There is a long delay between the onset of symptoms and correct diagnosis of acromegaly. This study aimed to explore the potential of hand size as a screening tool of acromegaly. Here we present first results of a new screening project.

Method: We measured scan-copies of acromegalics (n=27, 9 women, age 18–84 years) and controls (n=111, 71 women, age 19–81 years) and analyzed surface areas of palm and thenar and maximal diameters of hand, thenar and proximal fingers.

Results: The difference of palm surface areas and diameters between acromegalics and controls is highly significant. Most in men, where palm surface areas of acromegalics to controls (192.22±15.24 vs 167.93±16.37 cm, P<0.001) and hand diameters (9.61±0.50 vs 8.87±0.46 cm, P<0.001) reached same significance. In women, palm surface areas (145.02±10.87 vs 133.90±11.30 cm, P<0.01) and hand diameters (8.24±0.32 vs 7.84±0.39 cm, P<0.005) of acromegalics were significant higher compared to controls.

In controls, the palm surface area at the 95th percentile (representing a specifity of 95%) was 192.07 and 152.90 cm2 and the hand diameter at the 95th percentile was 9.58 and 8.39 cm in men and women respectively. The corresponding sensitivities to these cutoff levels were 55 and 33% for palm surface area and 55 and 44% for hand diameter in men and women respectively.

Conclusions: Measures of hand size may be a helpful and simple tool in the early screening for acromegaly. This approach allows defining clinical cutoff levels with a high specifity, however at a cost of low sensitivity. Further measurements with a higher sample size will follow for more robust results.

Declaration of funding: This study was partially supported by Pfizer.

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