Frequency of acromegaly in adults with diabetes or glucose intolerance and estimated prevalence in the general population

The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of acromegaly in adults with diabetes mellitus (DM) or glucose intolerance (GI) and to estimate its prevalence in the general population. A total of 2,270 patients with DM or GI and age from 20 to 70 years were studied. Patients with known pituitary disease and pregnant women were excluded. Serum IGF-1 was measured in all subjects and, if elevated, a new measurement was obtained together with the measurement of GH in the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Patients with persistently elevated IGF-1 and inadequate suppression of GH were submitted to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Acromegaly was not suspected by the assistant physician in any of the patients. Six patients had persistently elevated IGF-1 and inadequate suppression of GH in the OGTT (without other conditions associated with GH or IGF-1 elevation). Pituitary adenoma was detected by MRI in three patients, and two subjects presented an acromegalic phenotype. Two patients were submitted to transsphenoidal surgery, with immunohistochemistry confirming immunoreactivity for GH. Another patient was treated with octreotide LAR which resulted in the normalization of IGF-1 and GH. Considering a prevalence of DM or GI of 20% in adults and the occurrence of these co-morbidities in 55% of patients with acromegaly, the frequency of 3/2,270 found in this study permits to estimate 480 cases/1,000,000 adults. The present results suggest that the prevalence of acromegaly is underestimated and further studies are needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of biochemical screening in certain groups of patients.