Acromegaly: current therapies benefits and burdens

Current therapies and mortality in acromegaly

UNLABELLED Acromegaly is a rare disease most frequently due to a GH secreting pituitary adenoma. Without an appropriate therapy, life of patients with acromegaly can be shortened with ten years. Pituitary surgery is usually the first line therapy for GH secreting pituitary adenomas. A meta-analysis proved that mortality is much lower in operated patients, even uncured, than the entire group of ...

Family caregiving: benefits and burdens.

Novel Somatostatin Receptor Ligands Therapies for Acromegaly

Surgery is considered the treatment of choice in acromegaly, but patients with persistent disease after surgery or in whom surgery cannot be considered require medical therapy. Somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) octreotide (OCT), lanreotide, and the more recently approved pasireotide, characterized by a broader receptor ligand binding profile, are considered the mainstay in the medical manage...

Current treatment guidelines for acromegaly.

Acromegaly, an indolent disorder of growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion is most typically caused by a somatotroph cell adenoma and may be treated by several modalities. Transsphenoidal surgical resection of micro-adenomas by experienced neurosurgeons results in biochemical normalization (postglucose GH <2 ng/mL, assay-dependent, age- and sex-matched IGF-I levels) in 70% of patients. However, ove...

Performance-based bundled payments: potential benefits and burdens.

Performance-based bundled payments have emerged as the most recent iteration of pay for performance. These are programs in which providers are paid a single fee for a set of evidenced-based services related to a diagnosis. The payments are typically linked to outcomes as well as other quality measures. This paper reviews two prominent bundled payment programs--PROMETHEUS and ProvenCare--and dis...