Acromegaly
Symptoms of Acromegaly
Source: NHS
In this topic (5)
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.
Articles for Acromegaly
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.
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.
