ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Pituitary Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1632944
This article is part of the Research TopicSurgery and Management of Pituitary Region Tumours and Their Endocrine OutcomesView all 11 articles
Craniofacial Parameters and Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Newly Diagnosed Acromegaly
Provisionally accepted
- 1Medical Centre for Postgraduate Education, Warsaw, Poland
- 2Department of Imaging Diagnostics, Bielanski Hospital, Warsaw, Poland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction:Acromegaly is a rare condition caused by excess growth hormone after skeletal maturity, leading to abnormal soft tissue and bone growth. These changes raise the risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) due to craniofacial abnormalities.Objective:The study aims to determine the correlation between the occurrence and severity of OSA and craniofacial anthropometric parameters in patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly.Study Design:Observational, cross-sectional study.Setting:Single-center study involving patients diagnosed with acromegaly.Methods:The research included 30 patients ranging from 25 to 81 years old (mean age 48) who were diagnosed with acromegaly. The diagnosis of OSA relied on polygraphy with the SOMNO check micro device. MRI provided the necessary craniofacial and upper airway measurements. Each patient received an ear, nose, and throat examination followed by a fiberoptic evaluation of the upper airway.Results:OSA was diagnosed in 76.67% of patients. The analysis revealed that moderate to severe OSA affected 46% of patients, while women developed the condition at twice the rate of men. The research established a statistically relevant link between the severity of OSA and tongue base hypertrophy. The study failed to detect meaningful relationships concerning OSA severity and palatine uvula hypertrophy on MRI and between OSA severity and palatine tonsil size and middle pharyngeal airway width.Conclusion:Our study found a high OSA prevalence (76.67%) in newly diagnosed acromegaly patients and a significant association between tongue base hypertrophy (FTP scale) and OSA severity (p < 0.001), while other anatomical parameters showed no significant correlation with AHI. The high prevalence of OSA in patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly highlights the importance of including sleep apnea screening in the initial diagnostic workup
Keywords: Acromegaly, Sleep apnoea, Growth Hormone, osa, craniofacial deformities Observational, Cross-sectional study
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pilarska, Dzaman, Szczepański and Węgrzecki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Karolina Dzaman, Medical Centre for Postgraduate Education, Warsaw, Poland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.