Endocrine Abstracts

Sleep apnea (SA) is a common acromegaly comorbidity, influencing patients’ quality of life and mortality risk. Despite its importance, SA frequently remains undiagnosed, and its real prevalence seems to be underestimated. The current observational study aimed at investigating the role of Berlin questionnaire (BQ) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) in assessing the risk of SA in this high-risk population, and to compare the results with an age-and gender-matched health cohort. One hundred and forty-four patients with acromegaly (63 men, 81 women, age 56.37 ± 12.94 years), and an equal number of age-and gender-matched health controls were included in the present study. All the subjects had no previous diagnosis of SA. For BQ and ESS, higher score indicated greater SA risk. A questionnaire evaluating quality of life in acromegaly, AcroQol, for which the higher score indicates a better quality of life, was administered only to patients. Patients showed a significantly higher BMI than controls (P<0.001), whereas there was no difference about hypertension prevalence (P=1). Comparing patients and controls, no significant difference was found in ESS score (P=0.761), and prevalence of high SA risk estimated by BQ (P=0.623). Furthermore, questionnaire results were analyzed in acromegalic patients related to gender, BMI, and disease control. ESS score and the prevalence of high SA risk based on BQ were similar between men and women. No significant differences were found for both ESS and BQ score among patients according to the BMI categories. Patients with uncontrolled disease had no differences in questionnaires’ score compared to controlled patients. Patient’s therapy did not influence ESS and BQ results. Acromegaly patients defined at high risk of SA according to BQ presented a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension (P=0.002), and number of antihypertensive drugs used (P<0.001), and lower AcroQol (P=0.019), compared to those at low risk. No differences concerning anthropometric parameters, GH and IGF-I levels, age at diagnosis, and disease duration were found between this two groups. AcroQol was inversely correlated to ESS (r=-0.326, P=0.012) and BQ (r=-0.310, P=0.018) scores. No correlation was found with age both in patients and controls. ESS and BQ are scores validated for SA risk assessment in the general population. The results of this study show that these tools seem to be not suitable for assessing SA risk in patients with acromegaly. Probably acromegalic patients, at higher risk of developing this comorbidity compared to the general population, requires a proper questionnaire.