Congestive heart failure in acromegaly: A review of 6 cases

Background: Though cardiac involvement is common in acromegaly, overt congestive heart failure is uncommon.

Materials and methods: This is retrospective analysis of hospital record between 1996 and 2007. We analyzed records of 150 consecutive patients with acromegaly. We included the patients with acromegaly those who had overt congestive heart failure either at presentation or during the course of illness for the present analysis. The diagnosis of acromegaly and congestive cardiac failure were based on standard criteria.

Results: Out of 150 patients with acromegaly, 6 patients had overt CHF (4.0%), of which 4 presented with the features of CHF and 2 developed during the course of illness. Three patients had hypertension and 1 had diabetes. Baseline echocardiography showed severe biventricular dysfunction and global hypokinesia in all. Angiography showed dilated hypokinetic left ventricle with normal coronaries in 3, it was confirmed at autopsy in 1. Three underwent trans-sphenoidal surgery, 1 received somatostatin analogue as primary treatment modality. Normalization of growth hormone and IGF-1 led to improvement in cardiac function in 1, 1 patient lost to follow up, and 4 died during the course of illness. In 1 patient, autopsy was performed and cardiac specimen revealed normal coronaries, concentric ventricular hypertrophy, and dilatation with myofibrolysis and interfascicular fibrosis.

Conclusion: Prevalence of overt CHF is 4% in present series. Overt CHF carries poor prognosis and hence, this complication should be recognized at earliest, and medical management to normalized cardiac function should be given utmost priority.