Cardiovascular comorbidities in acromegaly

Introduction and purpose: Acromegaly is a rare disease which occurs with the frequency of 0.2-1.1 cases per 100 000 patients per year. The main cause is the excess level of growth hormone (GH) which stimulates the liver to the insulin-like growth factor type 1 (IGF-1) secretion. IGF-1 leads to the tissues overgrowth. In addition, acromegalic patients suffer from many comorbidities, such as: cardiovascular, endocrinological, neoplastic and musculoskeletal complications. The main aim of this review is the update of the latest information concerning cardiovascular comorbidities in patients with acromegaly. State of knowledge: Studies revealed that 80% of acromegalic patients will develop cardiovascular comorbidities. Complications such as: hypertension, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, heart valve disease, atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease as well as myocardial infarction were the most widely described. They are responsible for 44% of deaths in the first decade of the acromegaly and 23% in the second one. Conclusions: Because of the delayed diagnosis of acromegaly in most patients, most comorbidities are discovered in advanced stages leading to the decrease in patients’ life span. Adequate knowledge about potential complications is necessary to increase patients’ quality of lives.