Myocardial Mechanics in Acromegaly: A Meta-Analysis of Echocardiographic Studies

Introduction: Evidence on myocardial deformation, detected by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE), in patients with acromegaly is scanty.

Aim: The aim of the present meta-analysis was to provide an updated information on left ventricular (LV) systolic function assessed by global longitudinal strain (GLS) in patients with acromegaly and preserved LVEF.

Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, systematic searches were conducted across bibliographic databases (Pub-Med, OVID, EMBASE and Cochrane library) to identify eligible studies from inception up to June 30-2024. Clinical studies published in English reporting data on LV mechanics in patients with acromegaly and controls were included. The statistical difference of the echocardiographic variables of interest between groups such as LVEF and global longitudinal strain (GLS) was calculated by standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) by using random-effects models.

Results: Seven studies including 288 patients with acromegaly and 294 healthy individuals were considered for the analysis. Pooled average LVEF values were 64.6 ± 1.5% in the healthy control group and 64.0 ± 1.3% in the acromegaly group (SMD: - 0.21 ± 0.22, CI -0.62/0.22, p = 0.34); the corresponding values of GLS were - 19.1.1 ± 1.2% and - 17.5 ± 1.2% (SMD: -0.52 ± 0.27, CI - 1.05/0.01, p = 0.05). No difference was found between the two groups for both global circumferential strain (GCS) and global radial strain (GRS).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that patients with acromegaly in which LVEF is completely comparable to healthy controls show an impairment in GLS of borderline statistical significance. Whether GLS assessment can actually unmask early alterations of systolic function in patients with acromegaly better than LVEF will need to be investigated by future studies.