[15-year echocardiographic follow-up of acromegalic patients]

An echocardiographic follow-up of 25 patients (pts) was performed, after the first examinations in 1978-1979. 15 pts have died in the last 15 years (Group 1), while 10 still living (Group 2). In Group 1 either the impaired global left ventricular at the time of the first echocardiography predicted a high mortality i.e. there were only two pts with normal echocardiographic findings. The other 6 acromegalic pts with a "normal heart" have survived. The left ventricular hypertrophy of pts in Group 2 was observed to increase during the 15-year follow-up, because of the development of systemic hypertension. In conclusion, the echocardiographic findings are of a good predictive value in estimations of the survival rate in acromegalic pts.