[Acromegaly in 2000]

Abstract

Acromegaly is a severe disease often diagnosed late. Morbidity and mortality are high, particularly due to cardiovascular and respiratory complications. Clinical diagnosis is often difficult to confirm, particularly in ectopic forms. In addition, recent reassessment of cure criteria have reduced the number of patients considered to be successfully cured. The therapeutic strategy for acromegaly is thus changing with the advent of somatostatin agonists. Medical treatment is proposed increasingly as the first intention treatment, particularly antitumoral therapy for macroadenomas with surgery or radiotherapy being used as second line treatment. The recent development of GH analogs offers new perspectives for the treatment of acromegaly.