Endocrine Abstracts

Background & Aims: An increased prevalence of obesity among patients with prolactinoma (PR) and weight loss after treatment (specially in male patients) has been reported1,2. On the other hand, weight gain after treatment has been observed in another study3. In this study we looked at the evolution of body weight in 37 patients with PR, 22 macroprolactinomas (MAPR) and 15 microprolactinomas (MIPR).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of prolactinoma patients and studied body weight fluctuations (in kilograms) over 24 months after diagnosis and treatment (dopa agonist, surgery and radiotherapy). In all patients the PR size was measured by MRI scan and prolactin was measured in the same laboratory (<350mu/l).

Results: In the MIPR group the initial mean body weight was 67.12kg and mean Prolactin level was 2350 mu/l. After 24 month mean body weight and prolactin level were 68.3kg and 942.8mu/l respectively. In the MAPR group the initial mean body weight was 84.4kg and mean prolactin level was 137657mu/l. After 24 months the values were 86.6kg and 7660mu/l. Despite the significance decrease in the prolactin level, no significant changes noted in the body weight. In fact, mean body weight was increased by 1.18 kg in MIPR and 2.2 kg in MAPR.

The initial mean body weight in the MAPR group was significantly higher than the MIPR group (84.4 vs 67.2, P value 0.006). However, the MIPR group were all females compared with 13 females and 9 males in the MAPR group and the mean age was 30.2 years in the MIPR group compared with 37.1 years in the MAPR group.

For the 9 male patients in the MAPR group, although they were heavier than the females in the same group initially, 24 months body weight did not decrease significantly compared with the initial body weight (100.74 vs 100.65, P value 0.978). Mean age was 37.3 years.

Conclusion: There were no significant changes in body weight in any sub-group after 24 months of treatment.