Introduction: Cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure (CHF) is a rare complication of growth hormone (GH)-secreting pituitary adenoma occurring in 3% of cases. We report a case of acromegaly complicated not only by CHF but also by the presence of intracardiac thrombus and cardioembolic stroke with hemorrhagic formation.
Case presentation: A 46-year-old Filipino female presented with amenorrhea, progressive coarsening of facial features, deepening of voice and enlargement of digits. She experienced easy fatigability, orthopnea and bipedal edema. The cardiac apex beat was sustained and displaced. Growth hormone was nonsuppressible. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed pituitary macroadenoma with hemorrhage. Incidentally, there was a left frontal lobe cortical infarct with hemorrhagic component. The echocardiogram demonstrated cardiomyopathic changes with a left ventricular thrombus.
Conclusions: The primary treatment for GH-producing adenoma is surgery; however, this patient has high surgical risk from her severe cardiomyopathy. Radiotherapy poses a greater risk because of increased cerebrovascular mortality. Somatostatin receptor ligands are significantly associated with improvement of cardiovascular and hemodynamic parameters. Dopamine agonists must be considered regardless of prolactin level and immunostaining. The risks and benefits of any treatment must be emphasized in the presence of conflicting clinical features such as in the case reported.
Keywords: Acromegaly; Cardiomyopathy; Cerebral Infarct.