Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To study complications in patients with acromegaly receiving somatostatin after radiotherapy.

Materials and methods: We examined 16 patients with mean disease duration 8.5±4.2 years (mean age 41.5±5.6 years) receiving distant gamma-therapy in the total dose of 60 Gy. The patients were divided into two groups: eight patients receiving somatostatin in the dose of 0.5 mg thrice a day and symptomatic therapy for 2 months were included into the 1st group, other eight patients received only symptomatic therapy. To establish the disease activity we examined diurnal GH secretion at 8.00, 11.00, 13.00, 15.00 and 18.00

Results and discussion: At first examination (6 months after radiotherapy) GH diurnal secretion showed the presence of active acromegaly. Average daily GH level was 58.6±8.2 and 49.8±9.3 mIU/l in two groups of patients respectively. 98% patients of the 1st group had endocrine-metabolic disorders, in 85% the disease was complicated with cardio-vascular disorders, 80% had neuromuscular-skeletal-joint complications, in 42% the disease was complicated with the respiratory disorders, 25% having neoplasms. In the 2nd group endocrine-metabolic disorders were found in all patients, in 80% and 30% the disease was complicated with cardio-vascular and respiratory complications respectively, neuromuscular-skeletal-joint disorders and neoplasms being found in 85 and 20% respectively. Two months later the repeated examination of the 1st group patients showed that average daily GH level was 5.6±1.2 mIU/l, the one remaining high in the 2nd group patients (26.6±8.5 mIU/l). In the 1st group the decrease in the incidence of endocrine-metabolic (78%), cardio-vascular (45%) and respiratory (15%) disorders was observed. In the 2nd groups patients the incidence of endocrine-metabolic disorders preserved (100%), cardio-vascular (90%) and respiratory (40%) disorders tended to increase.

Conclusions: Somatostatin and its analogues are the first line drugs in treatment of acromegaly. Post-radiotherapy use of sandostatin as the part of the combined therapy of acromegaly reducing both the process activity and complications is the evidence for its efficacy.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.