Author/Authors :
KOCAELLİ, Hümeyra İstanbul Üniversitesi - Diş Hekimliği Fakültesi - Ağız Diş Çene Hastalıkları ve Cerrahisi AD, Turkey , AYHAN, Mustafa İstanbul Üniversitesi - Diş Hekimliği Fakültesi - Ağız, Diş ve Çene Cerrahisi A D, Turkey
Abstract :
Acromegaly is a rare disease characterized by bony and soft tissue overgrowth with an incidense of 3 cases per million population per year. These changes occur secondary to chronic hypersecretion of growth hormones by the anterior pituitary gland adenoma. In diagnosed acromegaly patients, radiotherapy after transsephonaidal or transfrontal surgery and systemical diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiopulmonary diseases, sleep apnea, colon cancers and drugs should be considered. Acromegaly develops insidiously, the time between onset and diagnose of the disease may take 6-10 years. In the meantime, when symptoms such as enlargement in extremities, unexplained headache, visual disturbances, night sweat, prognathi inferior, diastemas, thickened lips, enlargened nose and macroglossia, condylar hyperplasia and unfitting prosthesis in edantolous patients raise doubts to acromegaly, evaluation of Insuline Like Growth Factor I and Growth Hormone levels in Oral Glucose Tolerance Test confirmation through magnetic resonance imaging is critical for early diagnose. In acromegaly cases mortality rate according to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and malignancy is doubled.