Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (DIMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), Policlinico San Martino, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Endocrine. 2018 Sep;61(3):533-541. doi: 10.1007/s12020-018-1630-4. Epub 2018 May 24.
Epidemiological data are pivotal for the estimation of disease burden in populations.
Of the study was to estimate the incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in Italy along with the impact of comorbidities and hospitalization rates as compared to the general population.
Retrospective epidemiological study (from 2000 to 2014) and case control-study. Data were extracted from the Health Search Database (HSD). HSD contains patient records from about 1000 general practitioners (GPs) throughout Italy, covering a population of more than 1 million patients. It includes information about patient demographics and medical data including clinical diagnoses and diagnostic tests.
At the end of the study period, 74 acromegaly patients (out of 1,066,871 people) were identified, resulting in a prevalence of 6.9 per 100,000 inhabitants [95% CI 5.4-8.5]. Prevalence was higher in females than men (p = 0.004), and showed a statistically significant trend of increase over time (p < 0.0001). Overall, incidence during the study period was 0.31 per 100,000 person-years. Hypertension and type II diabetes mellitus were the comorbidities more frequently associated with acromegaly (31.3 and 14.6%, respectively) and patients were more likely to undergo a high frequency of yearly hospitalization (≥3 accesses/year, p < 0.001) compared to sex-age matched controls.
This epidemiological study on acromegaly carried out using a large GP-based database, documented a disease prevalence of about 7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. As expected, acromegaly was associated with a number of comorbidities (mainly hypertension and type II diabetes mellitus) and a high rate of patients' hospitalization.
流行病学数据对于估计人群中的疾病负担至关重要。
本研究旨在估计意大利肢端肥大症的发病率和患病率，并与普通人群相比，评估合并症和住院率的影响。
回顾性流行病学研究（2000 年至 2014 年）和病例对照研究。数据从健康搜索数据库（HSD）中提取。HSD 包含来自意大利约 1000 名全科医生（GP）的患者记录，覆盖超过 100 万患者。它包含有关患者人口统计学和医疗数据的信息，包括临床诊断和诊断测试。
在研究期末，发现了 74 例肢端肥大症患者（在 1,066,871 人中），患病率为每 10 万人 6.9 例[95%置信区间 5.4-8.5]。女性患病率高于男性（p=0.004），且随时间呈统计学显著上升趋势（p<0.0001）。总体而言，研究期间的发病率为每 100,000 人年 0.31 例。高血压和 2 型糖尿病是与肢端肥大症相关的最常见合并症（分别为 31.3%和 14.6%），与性别年龄匹配的对照组相比，患者更有可能接受高频次的每年住院治疗（≥3 次/年，p<0.001）。
本研究使用大型基于全科医生的数据库开展肢端肥大症的流行病学研究，记录了每 10 万人约 7 例的疾病患病率。正如预期的那样，肢端肥大症与多种合并症（主要是高血压和 2 型糖尿病）和高比例的患者住院率相关。
