Heart disease in acromegaly.

Evidence has accumulated regarding acromegalic heart muscle disease which existence now appears to be unequivocal. We took an advantage of a large group of acromegalic patients being followed-up at our institution for a long time and have studied pattern, nature and reversibility of acromegalic heart disease. Its major manifestation is cardiac hypertrophy expressed especially as left ventricular hypertrophy. The cardiac hypertrophy is slowly reversible after normalization of plasma growth hormone levels due to successful treatment. This we have first suggested on the basis of a retrospective analysis of clinical and echocardiographic data in 78 patients with acromegaly and subsequently confirmed by a 10-year prospective follow-up of the original patient cohort. We have also showed that effective treatment of acromegaly with a new slow release somatostatine analogue lanreotide leads to regression of cardiac hypertrophy.