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Endocrine Abstracts (2018) 56 GP9 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.56.GP9

ECE2018 Guided Posters Acromegaly (11 abstracts)

Pregnancy and acromegaly – clinical outcomes from the Irish Pituitary Network

Anne Marie Hannon 1 , Triona O’Shea 1 , Rosemary Dineen 2 , Aftab Khattak 3 , Domhnall O’Halloran 3 , Steven Hunter 4 , Mark Sherlock 2 & Chris Thompson 1


1Academic Department of Endocrinology, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 2Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 3Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland; 4Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, UK.


Acromegaly is a rare disease characterised by excessive Growth hormone (GH) production from a pituitary adenoma. Subfertility is common in acromegaly and has various aetiologies, therefore pregnancy in acromegaly is rare. We present a case series of 19 pregnancies in 13 women with acromegaly from the newly formed Irish National Pituitary Registry. Twelve women had pituitary macroadenomas, one woman had a microadenoma. The age of the women ranged from 28 to 40 years with a median of 34 years. Only 5/19 pregnancies had optimal biochemical control of acromegaly pre-conception, as defined by IGF-1 concentration in the age-related reference level and plasma GH concentration of <2 μg/l. There were 18 singleton pregnancies and one twin pregnancy. Four women were receiving treatment with somatostatin analogues pre-pregnancy, all 4 women discontinued therapy with the first positive pregnancy test. No woman continued somatostatin analogue treatment during pregnancy. All 4 of these pregnancies had normalisation of the plasma IGF-1 concentration in spite of the withdrawal of somatostatin analogue therapy. 7/19 pregnancies continued dopamine agonist treatment during pregnancy.

Effect of pregnancy on acromegaly; No patient had a change in visual field during pregnancy. 9/14 IGF-1 plasma concentrations that were elevated pre-conception normalized during pregnancy, with a reduction in IGF-1 seen in a further 4 pregnancies.

Effect of acromegaly on pregnancy; 17 healthy babies were born at term. 1/19 pregnancies had pre-eclampsia and an emergency C-section was performed at 32 weeks. 1/19 pregnancies (twin pregnancy) had an elective caesarean section at 35 weeks. 0/19 pregnancies developed gestational diabetes.

Our data suggests that pregnancy in women with acromegaly is generally safe, from a maternal and foetal perspective. Furthermore, biochemical control tends to improve in spite of the withdrawal somatostatin analogue therapy during pregnancy.

Volume 56

20th European Congress of Endocrinology

Barcelona, Spain
19 May 2018 - 22 May 2018

European Society of Endocrinology 

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