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Endocrine Abstracts (2013) 32 P946 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.32.P946

1Department of Endocrinology, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey; 2Department of Physiology, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey; 3Department of Radiology, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey.


Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare, insidious, and potentially life-threatening condition. Patients with acromegaly have an increased morbidity and mortality for cardiovascular diseases. However, data on coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis are controversial in patients with acromegaly. Measurement of carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) with carotid doppler ultrasonography is a useful determiner of early atherosclerosis. Procalcitonin is a 116 amino acid peptide with a sequence identical to that of the pro-hormone of calcitonin, but procalcitonin it has no known hormonal activity. Possible relation with high procalcitonin level in acromegaly has been reported.

We aimed to evaluate the any relation with cIMT and procalcitonin levels in acromegaly.

Methods: In this study, totally 37 patient (16 patient with cIMT <0.8; 21 patient with cIMT ≥0.8) were used. Thirty age and sex matched healthy controls were included. We measured cIMT and procalcitonin levels. The cIMT measurements were made at the follow-up visit subsequent to when blood samples were obtained. B-mode ultrasonography of the left and right common and internal carotid arteries was performed by a specially trained radiology technician. The common cIMT was calculated as the mean of the left and right measurements and cIMT >0.8 were evaluated as increased thickness.

Results: We observed higher procalcitonin levels in acromegalic patient with cIMT ≥0.8 compared to acromegalic patient with cIMT <0.8 and results were statistically significant (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Our results showed that procalcitonin can be useful for the assessment of premature atherosclerosis in acromegaly.

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