Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Acromegaly is a rare endocrine disorder characterized by sustained hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) with concomitant elevation of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) associated with acral enlargement, sleep apnea, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. Its annual incidence is approximately six per million people. The most common cause of acromegaly is a somatotroph (growth hormone-secreting) adenoma of the anterior pituitary.

Methods: A total of 28 patients diagnosed with acromegaly were included in this retrospective study. Seventeen of the patients were female and 11 of them were male. The clinical presentations, anthropometric measurements, fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels, triglyceride levels and polysomnography characteristics of patients were analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups according with and without sleep apnea syndrome.

Results: The mean age of these patients was 50.60±13.92 years and 15 (53.6%) of the patients were sleep apnea syndrome. Of these patients, 63.6% of the women; 47.1% of the men had sleep apnea syndrome. 46.4% of patients with sleep apnea syndrome were diabetic. 66.7% of the patients without diabetes, did not have sleep apnea syndrome. As a result, a statistically significant difference was found between diabetic patients with and without sleep apnea syndrome (P<0.05). Serum triglyceride levels were examined when patients were diagnosed with acromegaly. Serum triglyceride levels were 161.53±59.10 mg/dl in the group with sleep apnea syndrome and 99.15±38,58 mg/dl in the group without sleep apnea syndrome. There was a statistically significant difference in serum triglyceride levels between these two groups (P<0.05).

Conclusion: In this study, we investigated the association of sleep apnea syndrome with metabolic disorders in acromegaly patients. It’s revealed that diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia are more frequent in patients with sleep apnea syndrome in acromegaly.