Abstract
Abstract
Purpose
Pain is a common symptom of acromegaly, impairing health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) significantly despite long-term disease remission. Neuropathic-like pain (NP-like) symptoms are invalidating, with great impact on HR-QoL. Studies characterizing or investigating the etiology of pain in acromegaly are scarce. Therefore, we aimed to assess NP-like symptoms in a cohort of controlled acromegaly patients.
Methods
Forty-four long-term controlled acromegaly patients (aged 62.6 ± 12.6 years; 56.8% female) were included in this cross-sectional study. NP-like symptoms were assessed using the validated painDETECT questionnaire. Patients were divided in three probability-based NP-like symptoms categories based on the total score (range 0–35): unlikely (≤ 12), indeterminate (13–18) and likely (≥ 19). HR-QoL (physical component score (PCS), and mental component score (MCS)), and self-reported pain were assessed using Short Form-36 (SF-36). Potential risk factors were determined using linear regression analyses.
Results
Self-reported pain was reported by 35 patients (79.5%). Likely NP-like symptoms were present in 4/44 patients (9.1%), and indeterminate NP-like symptoms in 6/44 patients (13.6%). All patients with likely NP-like symptoms were female. Higher painDETECT scores were negatively associated with HR-QoL (PCS: r = − 0.46, P = 0.003; MCS: r = − 0.37, P = 0.018), and SF-36 pain scores (r = − 0.63, P < 0.0001). Female sex was a risk factor for NP-like symptoms.
Conclusions
Pain was prevalent in controlled acromegaly patients, whereas NP-like symptoms were relatively infrequent, and only observed in females. NP-like symptoms were associated with lower HR-QoL in acromegaly. Since specific analgesic therapy is available, awareness for characterization, increased understanding, and clinical trials regarding neuropathic pain identification and treatment in acromegaly patients are warranted.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Endocrinology,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Cited by
3 articles.
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