[The prevalence of hypertension in acromegaly].
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of hypertension (HT) in a group of patients with acromegaly at the moment of diagnosis and after treatment.


METHODS
Fifty-seven patients, 43 females and 14 males with a mean age of 45.19 +/- 11.9 years were studied retrospectively. In the last visit 9 patients (15.7%) were in remission and 47 (84.2%) had active acromegaly. We considered hypertensive the patients with systolic BP > or = 140 and/or diastolic BP > or = 90 mmHg. Hypertension was classified in four stages:- mild, moderate, severe and very severe.


RESULTS
The prevalence of hypertension at the moment of diagnosis was 35%. The hypertensive patients had a mean age of 51.75 +/- 9.3 years and normotensive patients 41.65 +/- 11.6 years (p < 0.001). In females the prevalence of HT was 27.9% and in males it was 57% (p = NS). In hypertensive patients (n = 20), the mean BP was 159 +/- 15 (syst.)/97.2 +/- 9.8 (diast.), 16 patients (80%) had mild to moderate HT and the remainder had severe (n = 2) and very severe (n=1) HT. In the last visit, 22.2% of patients were cured and 46.8% of those with active acromegaly were hypertensive. None of the patients cured and initially normotensive developed HT; among those that were hypertensive (n = 3), 2 remained hypertensive and 1 became normotensive. Among patients with active acromegaly and initially normotensive, 7 developed HT 4.85 +/- 2.03 years later; of those hypertensive at diagnosis (n = 16), only one became normotensive. The last case was 27 years old. The patients that remained hypertensive had a mean age of 53.8 +/- 6.85 years (41-62 years).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of hypertension at the moment of diagnosis was 35%, similar to the majority of studies published and higher than the general population. The hypertensive patients were significantly older the normotensive patients and most of them had mild to moderate HT. We observed an increase in the prevalence of HT over the years in the cases that maintained active acromegaly. In our series only one of the three patients cured became normotensive, therefore, we concluded that HT in acromegaly is frequently irreversible. The chances of normalization seems higher in younger patients and probably with a shorter duration of acromegaly.
Barros
L
L
Serviço de Endocrinologia, Diabetes e Metabolismo, Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra.
Paiva
I
I
Rodrigues
D
D
Ruas
L
L
Carrilho
F
F
Carvalheiro
M
M
Ruas
M M
MM
D000172:Acromegaly / Q000150:complications*; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution
Prevalência da HTA na acromegália.