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Clinical features and therapeutic outcomes of patients with acromegaly in Saudi Arabia: a retrospective analysis

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Abstract

Background

Acromegaly is a rare disease resulting in clinical sequelae with significant morbidity and mortality due to the central tumor mass effect and prolonged growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion.

Objectives

The goal is to describe the epidemiology, clinical features, presence of comorbidities, and treatment outcomes of acromegaly in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

Data was collected through a retrospective review of the charts of all patients diagnosed with acromegaly from nine major hospitals in Saudi Arabia over a period of more than 25 years.

Results

A total of 195 patients (116 males and 79 females), with a mean age at diagnosis of 43 ± 12 (males) and 46 ± 14 years (females), from nine major hospitals were identified and included in the analysis. All cases were caused by pituitary adenomas, of which 92.4% were macroadenomas. Headache, coarse facial features, acral growth, and sweating/oily skin were by far the most frequent presenting complaints. The most common comorbidities were diabetes mellitus (51.7%), followed by hypertension (50%) and visual field defect (30.5%). The vast majority (95%) of patients were treated surgically (98%). Twenty-four percent also received radiotherapy, and 74.4% received medical therapy. When stringent criteria were applied for assessment of outcomes of therapy, 28.7% of the patients were cured and 30.1% had their disease under control, while 28.7% were found to have active disease despite receiving multimodal therapy.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the need for a national acromegaly registry to enable early identification, evaluation, and selection of the best therapeutic approaches to improve the outcome and remission rate of the disease.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the research center of King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obesity, Endocrine, and Metabolism Center. King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mussa Hussain AlMalki, Maswood M. Ahmad & Badurudeen M. Buhary

  2. King Abdul Aziz Medical City, College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdul Aziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mussa Hussain AlMalki, Awad Alshahrani & Tariq Nasser

  3. Department of Endocrinology, King Fahad Military & Medical Complex, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Rashid Aljawair

  4. Department of Endocrinology, King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Arwa Alyamani

  5. Department of Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Arwa Alyamani & Hussain Raef

  6. Department of Medicine, King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Amani Alhozali

  7. Department of Medicine, Ministry of National Guard Health Affair, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Awad Alshahrani

  8. Department of Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Saud Alzahrani

  9. Department of Medicine, Ministry of National Guard Health Affair, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Tariq Nasser

  10. Department of Endocrinology, Prince Sultan Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Wael Alzahrani & Mohamed Aldawish

  11. Department of Medicine, King Saud University Medical City, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Aishah Elkhzaimy

Authors
  1. Mussa Hussain AlMalki
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  2. Maswood M. Ahmad
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mussa Hussain AlMalki.

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The study was approved by a research ethics committee of the King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) research center, Riyadh and King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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AlMalki, M.H., Ahmad, M.M., Buhary, B.M. et al. Clinical features and therapeutic outcomes of patients with acromegaly in Saudi Arabia: a retrospective analysis. Hormones 19, 377–383 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42000-020-00191-0

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