Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Despite biochemical control of GH and IGF-I levels patients with acromegaly continue to have marked impairment of their well-being. The acromegalic arthropathy has been identified as a significant contributor to the impaired well-being of these individuals. Few data are available to determine the impact of the arthropathy on function.Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of acromegaly under follow-up in six tertiary pituitary centres were invite...

Background: Despite biochemical control of GH and IGF-I levels patients with acromegaly continue to have marked impairment of their well-being. The acromegalic arthropathy has been identified as a significant contributor to the impaired well-being of these individuals. We aimed to establish the true prevalence of arthropathy, distribution of joint involvement and use of analgesics for arthropathy in a large series of patients with acromegaly.Methods: Pat...

Background: Patients with acromegaly experience early onset arthropathy characterised by initial joint space widening due to cartilage hyperplasia, with later degenerative changes characterised by joint space narrowing, sclerosis and osteophyte formation. To date no specific treatment is available for the arthropathy these patients experience, with management being limited to analgesics, anti-inflammatory agents, physiotherapy, joint injections, and potentially joint replaceme...