January - March 2021, Volume 17, Issue 1

Scânteie CL, Leucuta DC , Ghervan CM

Quality of Life in Patients with Acromegaly – a Romanian Single Center Cross-Sectional Study

Acta Endo (Buc) 2021, 17 (1): 42-50
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2021.42

Context. Acromegaly, a severe condition characterized by excessive and unmodulated secretion of growth hormone, leads to morphologic disturbances and multisystem complications. Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in patients with acromegaly compared to matched obese patients. Design. This was an observational cross-sectional study. Subjects and methods. We enrolled 49 patients with acromegaly and 49 obese patients. AcroQoL (acromegaly QoL questionnaire) was applied to all patients and IGF-1 (type 1 insulin-like growth factor 1) was measured. Results. Patients with acromegaly had a worse QoL compared to patients with obesity (score= 77(53-86) vs. 96(90- 102), p˂0.001). In the group of patients with acromegaly, there was no difference in the QoL regarding the activity of the disease (active, controlled, or cured). Men had a higher AcroQoL score than women (score= 88(55-95) vs. 74(52.75- 82), p=0.02), but there was no difference between patients with microadenomas and the ones with macroadenomas (score= 82(66-88.5) vs. 73(55-83), p=0.136). The most frequent complications were cardiovascular complications (81.63%), articular complications (73.46%), dyslipidemia (65.30%) and digestive complications (63.26%). Conclusions. Despite complex treatment and hormonal control, the presence of complications reduces the quality of life in patients with acromegaly, even when compared with obese patients.

Keywords: acromegaly, quality of life, AcroQoL score.

Correspondence: Daniel Corneliu Leucuta MD, “Iuliu Ha?ieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Medical Informatics and Biostatistics Department, 6 Pasteur Street, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, 400349, Romania, E-mail: dleucuta@umfcluj.ro