Acromegaly

Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2008 Mar;37(1):101-22, viii. doi: 10.1016/j.ecl.2007.10.002.

Abstract

Acromegaly is caused by growth hormone hypersecretion, mostly from a pituitary adenoma, driving insulin-like growth factor 1 overproduction. Manifestations include skeletal and soft tissue growth and deformities; and cardiac, respiratory, neuromuscular, endocrine, and metabolic complications. Increased morbidity and mortality require early and tight disease control. Surgery is the treatment of choice for microadenomas and well-defined intrasellar macroadenomas. Complete resection of large and invasive macroadenomas rarely is achieved; hence, their low rate of disease remission. Pharmacologic treatments, including long-acting somatostatin analogs, dopamine agonists, and growth hormone receptor antagonists, have assumed more importance in achieving biochemical and symptomatic disease control.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Acromegaly* / diagnosis
  • Acromegaly* / pathology
  • Acromegaly* / therapy
  • Dopamine / analogs & derivatives
  • Dopamine / therapeutic use
  • Hormone Antagonists / therapeutic use
  • Human Growth Hormone / physiology
  • Humans
  • Pituitary Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Pituitary Neoplasms / pathology
  • Pituitary Neoplasms / therapy

Substances

  • Hormone Antagonists
  • Human Growth Hormone
  • Dopamine