Case Report: A case report of acromegaly associated with primary aldosteronism

Abstract

We describe a patient with a rare combination of acromegaly and primary aldosteronism. A 37 year-old female patient was diagnosed with acromegaly on the basis of typical clinical, hormonal and image characteristics. She presented also with one of the most common co-morbidities - arterial hypertension. The patient has been regularly followed-up and after three surgical interventions, irradiation and adjuvant treatment with a dopamine agonist, acromegaly was finally controlled in 2008 (20 years after diagnosis). Arterial hypertension however, remained a therapeutic problem even after prescription of four antihypertensive drugs. She had normal biochemical parameters, except for low potassium levels 3.2 (3.5-5.6) mmol/l. This raised the suspicion of primary hyperaldosteronism, confirmed by a high aldosterone to plasma rennin activity ratio, high aldosterone level after a Captopril challenge test and visualization of a 35 mm left adrenal nodule on a CT scan. After an operation, the patient recovered from hypokalemia and antihypertensive therapy was reduced to a small dose of a Ca blocker. Co-morbid arterial hypertension is common in acromegaly, though it is rare for this to be caused by Conn's adenoma. The association of Conn's adenoma with acromegaly has been interpreted in two lines: as a component of multiple endocrine neoplasia type (MEN1) syndrome or as a direct mitogenic effect of hyperactivated GH-IGF1 axis.