Hypertension in Acromegaly Patients

factor. This condition, which affects approximately 60-90 patients per million, predisposes patients to numerous cardiac complications. It is imperative to add clinical knowledge and experiences regarding this patient group to the literature.  We aimed to examine HT, the most common cardiac involvement, in our cohort of  acromegaly patients.

Methods: The data of 121 acromegaly patients were retrospectively analyzed. To confirm the presence of hypertension, repeated diagnoses of hypertension in hospital records, blood pressure values exceeding 140/90 mmHg on at least two consecutive visits, or the use of antihypertensive medication were required. 

Results: HT was detected in 32 patients(26.44%). When comparing patients with and without hypertension, there were no differences in gender, body mass index, smoking status, family history of HT, duration of acromegaly, chiasm compression, or GH and IGF-1 levels at diagnosis. However, patients with HT were found to be older (p=0.025). Multivariate analysis, including age, gender, estimated duration of acromegaly, and GH and IGF-1 levels at diagnosis, showed that age was the only predictor of HT in acromegaly (OR=1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.10; p=0.007).

Conclusion: The key findings are: (1) age is a significant predictor of HT in acromegaly,(2) there is no clinically significant relationship between elevated IGF-1 levels and the incidence of HT, and (3) there is no relationship between family history of HT and chiasm compression and the presence of HT at the time of acromegaly diagnosis.