Endocrine Abstracts

AcroQoL is a very well-authenticated survey questionnaire capable of evaluating the quality of life (QoL) in acromegalic patients. This study was designed to investigate how AcroQoL of acromegalic patients in Korea would change after medical treatment with octreotide LAR. A total of 58 drug-naïve patients from 11 tertiary centers in Korea were included; all of them were prescribed with octreotide LAR 20 mg at the time of enrollment, and their QoL were evaluated with AcroQoL survey questionnaires. The observation period was 24 weeks; measurement of GH/IGF1 and AcroQoL survery were performed at baseline, week 12 and 24. With their mean age of 47.2 years (29 males), GH and IGF1 significantly decreased during the first 12 weeks (GH: 4.8 vs 1.9 μg/l, P< 0.001 and IGF1: 497 vs 265 μg/l, P< 0.001). It was only AcroQoL scores of the psychological appearance subdomain that showed significant increment during the entire 24 weeks (68.6 → 73.5 → 75.4%, P< 0.05). The change of AcroQoL scores (psychological appearance subdomain) demonstrated the significantly negative correlation with the change of IGF1 levels (r=−0.282, P=0.039). When all of the patients were divided into two groups according to their disease activity at week 24 (controlled vs uncontrolled), AcroQoL scores for psychological appearance subdomain of two groups appeared to change differently over the entire 24 weeks (P=0.047). In conclusion, medical treatment using octreotide LAR resulted in the improvement of psychological aspect of AcroQoL, especially appearance subdomain.