Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The study was designed to assess the effects of remission of acromegaly on bone turnover.

Methods: Twenty-eight patients with active acromegaly (14 women; age 48.0±9.8 years) were enrolled in the study. The control group comprised 28 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals. Bone turnover markers (osteocalcin, β-crosslaps, and bone alkaline phosphatase) were measured at enrolment and 6 months after achievement of disease remission. Transspehenoidal surgery was performed in all patients. Twenty-one patients achieved disease remission after surgery. In seven patients disease remission was achieved using somatostatin receptor analogs plus radiosurgery in two of them.

Results: Patients with active acromegaly had significantly higher levels of osteocalcin (P=0.003), β-crosslaps (P<0.001) and bone alkaline phospahatase (P<0.001) than the control group. Six months after remission achievement, the patients with acromegaly had significantly lower levels of osteocalcin (P=0.003) and β-crosslaps (P=0.007) than before the treatment. Activity of bone alkaline phosphatase tended to lower, but the difference was not significant between the two measurements. No differences were found in osteocalcin level between the patients in remission and the control group (P=0.09), while the crosslaps level as well as the activity of alkaline phosphatase was still significantly higher in the acromegaly remission group (P=0.04 for both parameters).

Conclusion: In patients with acromegaly, 6 months after achievement of disease remission, bone turnover significantly decreases, but still remains higher than in healthy individuals.