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Usefulness of an ad hoc questionnaire (Acro-CQ) for the systematic assessment of acromegaly comorbidities at diagnosis and their management at follow-up

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the validity of a self-administered questionnaire (Acro-CQ) developed to systematically assess the presence, type and time of onset of acromegaly comorbidities.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study; 105 acromegaly patients and 147 controls with other types of pituitary adenoma, referred to a specialized Italian Center, autonomously compiled Acro-CQ in an outpatient clinical setting. To test its reliability in a different setting, Acro-CQ was administered via mail to 78 patients with acromegaly and 100 with other pituitary adenomas, referred to a specialized US Center. Data obtained from questionnaires in both settings were compared with medical records (gold standard).

Results

Demographics of patients and controls from both countries were similar. In both settings, >95 % of the questionnaires were completely filled; only one item was missed in the others. Concordance with medical record was excellent (k > 0.85) for most of the items, independently from the way of administration, patient age, gender and nationality, pituitary adenoma type and disease activity.

Conclusions

Acro-CQ is an inexpensive, highly accepted from patients and reliable tool recommended to expedite systematic collection of relevant clinical data in acromegaly at diagnosis, to be replicated at follow-ups. This tool may guide a targeted, cost-effective management of complications. Moreover, it could be applied to retrieve data for survey studies in both acromegaly and other pituitary adenomas, as information is easily and rapidly accessible for statistical analysis.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Corso Dogliotti, 14, 10126, Turin, Italy

    F. Guaraldi, G. Beccuti, N. Prencipe, R. Giordano, V. S. Di Giacomo, A. Berton, M. Lorente, V. Gasco, E. Ghigo & S. Grottoli

  2. Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, DIBINEM, University of Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    D. Gori

  3. Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, 10126, Turin, Italy

    R. Giordano

  4. Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Pituitary Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA

    Y. Mints & R. Salvatori

Authors
  1. F. Guaraldi
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  2. D. Gori
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  3. G. Beccuti
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  4. N. Prencipe
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  5. R. Giordano
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  6. Y. Mints
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  7. V. S. Di Giacomo
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  8. A. Berton
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  9. M. Lorente
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  10. V. Gasco
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  11. E. Ghigo
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  12. R. Salvatori
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  13. S. Grottoli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to F. Guaraldi.

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Conflict of interest

RS serves in an advisory board for Novartis and receives research support from Novartis, Ipsen and Pfizer. EG serves in an advisory board for Pfizer. SG serves in an advisory board for Pfizer and received support from Novartis, Ipsen, Italfarmaco and Pfizer. The other authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and the Helsinki Declaration. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

All patients included in the study gave their informed consent.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

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Guaraldi, F., Gori, D., Beccuti, G. et al. Usefulness of an ad hoc questionnaire (Acro-CQ) for the systematic assessment of acromegaly comorbidities at diagnosis and their management at follow-up. J Endocrinol Invest 39, 1277–1284 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-016-0476-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-016-0476-y

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