Endocrine Abstracts

Background: In the last few decades, the association between pituitary disorders and cardiovascular disease has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the importance of gender as a non-modifiable risk of factor is increasingly emerging.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of 112 patients diagnosed with nonfunctioning pituitary tumor (NFPT) attending the outpatient clinic at our tertiary center. In this study we report only preliminary data of the retrospective analysis, while a subsequent prospective analysis is ongoing.

Results: In our cohort of patients (51M/61F; mean age 58±16 years), males showed a more aggressive presentation with a significantly higher number of macroadenomas and of tumors needing surgery than females (P=0.04 and P=0.03, respectively). Concerning the presence of pituitary deficits as well, they were significantly more frequent in males compared to females (central hypothyroidism: 45% vs 16%, P=0.03; hypogonadism with exclusion of menopausal state: 47% vs 16%, P<0.01), hypoadrenalism: 37% vs 19%, P=0.05; GH deficiency: 35% 11%, P<0.01). In the whole group, 46 patients (41%) had hypertension, 11 (9.8%) cardiovascular ischemic disease while cerebrovascular disease appeared only in 3 (2.6%) patients. Diabetes mellitus was diagnosed in 10 patients (9%), 42 patients (37.5%) presented dyslipidemia, 12 patients (11%) obesity. Comparing male and females, we found a significantly higher presence of cardiovascular morbidities in the male group compared to the female one (hypertension, cardiovascular events and cerebrovascular events, for all P<0.05), while concerning metabolic comorbidities no differences were found. Comparing our data to the general Italian population in the same age range we did not find any difference in the female group, while in the NFPT male group a significantly higher percentage of cardiovascular events and hypertension compared to the general population was found (P=0.04 and P=0.01 respectively; data reported by the Italian National Institute of Statistic - ISTAT).

Conclusion: Our data confirmed that the presence of NFPT is related to cardiovascular complications. In particular, our data showed that NFPT in males have a more aggressive presentation compared to females both in endocrinological and cardiovascular comorbidities. We interestingly reported that males with NFPT present a greater risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease than the general population of the same age, suggesting the need for a targeted approach with greater surveillance in this specific group of patients.