Acromegaly.ppt

ACROMEGALY

1. 1
Acromegaly
•Chronic disease marked by over growth of
hands, feet and lower part of the face, resulting
from excessive production of somatotropin, the
growth –stimulating hormone.
•In many cases, over secretion of the hormone
can be traced to a tumor of the pituitary gland.
Acromegaly is accompanied by progressive
weakness and some times by diabetes mellitus.

2. 2
•The disease usually appears in adulthood.
•Treatment consists of microsurgical
removal of hyper functioning tissue,
pituitary irradiation, and drugs that
suppress growth hormone.
Clinical features:
•Soft tissues, become enlarge and bones
increase in thickness.

3. 3
•Enlargement of hands,especially finger
tips.
•Feet enlarge.
•Enlargement of the mandible,causing
spreading of the teeth.
•Enlargement of internal organs,such as
the liver,heart,spleen,kidneys and lungs.
•Enlarged tongue.

4. 4
Gigantism
•Excessive symmetrical growth, especially
of the arms and legs, accompanied by a
corresponding growth in height of the
entire body.
•The subjects look like the giants with
average height of about 7-8 feet.
Causes:
•Gigantism is due to hypersecretion of GH
in childhood.

5. 5
•Acidophilic tumors of the anterior pituitary
gland.
•Increased somatomedin formation.
Signs and symptoms:
–Height of more than 7-8 feet.
–The limbs are disproportionately long.
–The giants are hyperglycemic and they
develop glycosuria pituitary diabetes.

6. 6
•The hyper glycemia causes constant
stimulation of βcells of islets of
langerhans in the pancreas and release of
insulin.
•However, the over activity of βcells of
langerhans in pancreas leads to
degeneration of these cells and deficiency
of insulin. And, ultimately diabetes mellitus
is developed.

7. 7
•The tumor of the pituitary gland itself
causes constant headache.
•Pituitary tumor also causes visual
disturbances.
Treatment:
–Surgical removal.
–Irradiation of the anterior pituitary gland.

8. 8
Panhypopituitarism
•This term means decreased secretion of
all the hormones of the anterior pituitary
gland.
•If Panhypopituitrism occurs in children it
causes Dwarfism. If it occurs in adults it
causes Simmond`s disease.
•1-Dwarfism:
•This is panhypopituitarism in children.

9. 9
Causes:
•Congenital defect.
•Inflammation of anterior pituitary gland.
•Surgical damage to pituitary gland.
Characteristics of dwarfism:
•The features of the body are developed in
appropriate proportion to each other, but
the rate of growth is altered.

10. 10
•A child who reaches the age of 8-10 years
may have the bodily development of a
child of 4-5 years of age. when this child
reaches the age of 18,he or she may have
the bodily development of 7-8 year old
child.
•No thyroid deficiency is observed.
•No adrenocortical deficiency is observed.

11. 11
Treatment:
•Now a days human growth hormone can
be synthesized by Escherichia coli
bacteria, as a result of successful
application of recombinant DNA
technology.

12. 12
2. Simmond`s disease:
•This is panhypopituitarism in adult.
•Causes:
–Trauma to the pituitary gland.
–Inflammation of the pituitary gland.
–Thrombosis of the pituitary blood vessels.

13. 13
Characteristics:
–Hypothyroidism.
–Decreased secretion of FSH and LH, causing
loss of sexual functions.
–Weight gain.
Treatment:
–The patient should be treated with
adrenocortical and thyroid hormones.