Acromegaly

Symptoms of Acromegaly

Acromegaly can cause a wide range of symptoms that tend to develop slowly over time.

Typical symptoms include:

Joint pain
Large hands and feet
Carpal tunnel syndrome (compression of the nerve in the wrist, causing numbness and weakness of the hands)
Thick, coarse, oily skin
Skin tags
Enlarged lips, tongueand nose
A protruding jaw and brow
Widely spaced teeth
Deepening of the voicedue to enlarged sinuses and vocal cords
Obstructive sleep apnoea (breaks in breathing during sleep due to obstruction of the airway)
Excessive sweating
Fatigue and weakness
Headaches
Impaired vision
Loss of sex drive
In women, abnormal periods
In men, erectile dysfunction
In children and teenagers, excessive height (gigantism)

Some of the above symptoms are the result of the tumour compressing nearby tissues for example, headaches and vision problems may occur if the tumour squashesnearby nerves.

If you think you have acromegaly, see your GP straight away. Acromegaly can usually be successfully treated with brain surgery and medication, but early diagnosis and treatment is important to prevent the symptoms getting worse and to reduce your chance of getting complications.

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 23 Jun 2016

Articles for acromegaly

Symptoms of Acromegaly

Acromegaly can cause a wide range of symptoms that tend to develop slowly over time. Typical symptoms include: joint pain; large hands and feet; carpal tunnel syndrome (compression of the nerve in the wrist, causing numbness and weakness of the hands); thick, coarse, oily skin; skin tags.

Causes of Acromegaly

Acromegaly is caused by excessive production of growth hormone. This usually occurs as the result of a benign (non-cancerous) brain tumour in the pituitary gland called an adenoma, but rare cases have been linked to tumours elsewhere in the body, such as in the lungs and pancreas.

Complications of Acromegaly

If acromegaly is left untreated, you may beat risk of the following health problems: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), cardiovascular disease, cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle), etc.

Diagnosis of Acromegaly

If your doctor suspects acromegaly from your symptoms, they will order blood tests to measure your levels of human growth hormone. Levels of growth hormone naturally vary from minute to minute as it is released from the pituitary glandin spurts.

Introduction

Acromegaly is a condition in which the body produces too much growth hormone, leading to the excess growth of body tissues over time. Acromegaly is a genetic condition which develops when the pituitary glands in the brain overproduce growth hormone. This usually occurs before the onset of puberty.

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