Aortic root ectasia & acromegaly

An excess of growth hormone (GH) results in cardiac complications, causing patients with acromegaly to have a shortened life expectancy. However, the vascular consequences of excess GH, specifically, are unknown. In their commentary, Colao and Grasso discuss the emerging problem of increased aortic root diameter in acromegalic patients. They focus on research published in the same issue of Clinical Endocrinology by Casini et al., who found that the prevalence of aortic ectasia was higher in the 42 acromegalic patients, compared with 42 healthy matched controls. Long exposure to excess GH thus directly affects the aortic root and echocardiographic measurements are needed in clinical practice to fully characterise acromegalic cardiomyopathy. Casini et al. (2011) Clinical Endocrinology 75 495–500.

Read the original article at: DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2011.04067.x and the commentary at: DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2011.04131.x (Clinical Endocrinology 75 420–421).