Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Gastrointestinal system is under the influence of excessive GH and IGF1 in acromegaly. Increased bowel length and delayed transit time may cause functional disturbence of the bowel in acromegaly. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the frequency of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in cases with acromegaly.

Methods: Twenty-five active cases with acromegaly who were newly diagnosed between 2010–2011 and 16 inactive acromegaly patients followed at Endocrinology–Metabolism out-patient clinic of Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty between 1983 and 2011 were included in the study. Twenty gender and age matched healthy subjects (HS) composed the control group. All cases were questioned for presence of IBS using Rome III criteria. Abdominal ultrasonography (USG) and colonoscopy results of acromegalic patients were obtained. In addition, cases with acromegaly were evaluated for their quality of life and status of depression by using acromegaly quality of life questionnaire (AcroQoL) and Beck depression inventory (BDI) respectively.

Results: IBS was present in 4 of 25 (16%) newly diagnosed active cases with acromegaly whereas one of 16 (6%) active acromegaly patients and 2 of 29 HS had IBS (6.8%) (P=0.28). Four of 5 patients with IBS had no pathologic finding in abdominal USG or colonoscopy that could explain their symptoms. One patien refused to have USG or colonoscopy. The median BDI and Acroqol scores in active and inactive acromegaly groups were 16 (IQR: 10.00–22.50), 11.5 (IQR: 4.50–19.50) (P=0.25) and 56 (IQR: 42.50–68.00), 65.50 (IQR: 40.63–76.75) (P=0.45), respectively.

Conclusion: A higher percentage of IBS was observed in acromegaly patients with active disease compared to inactive patients although there was not a statistically significant difference.

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.