[Evaluation of myocardial blood flow and cardiac functional change in acromegaly]

We studied 201Tl myocardial scintigraphy and 99mTc-HSA gated blood pool scan to evaluate the influence of growth hormone on myocardial blood flow and hemodynamics in 16 patients with acromegalies. Contraction properties were almost within normal limit, but cardiac output was in high output state, because left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and cardiac output were 47.8 +/- 17.1%, 37.3 +/- 14.9%, and 6.4 +/- 1.7 L/min, respectively. Otherwise, 201Tl myocardial images revealed 62.5% no redistributed hypoperfusion, 18.8% redistributed hypoperfusion, 56.3% myocardial hypertrophy and 25.0% left ventricular enlargement. These data suggested the high incidence of acromegalic cardiomyopathy due to primary or secondary growth hormone effect.