The sesamoid index. An aid in the diagnosis of acromegaly.

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Excerpt The acromegalic patient with advanced disease shows gross and well-known facial and skeletal changes (1). We noticed in the hand X rays of a patient with far advanced acromegaly that the medial sesamoid bone at the metacarpophalangeal joint of the first digit was larger than those usually seen in nonacromegalic patients (Figure 1). This finding led us to see if this sesamoid enlargement could be found in other acromegalic patients. Such enlargement was found in all our other acromegalic patients. Here we describe the size of this finding (expressed as a sesamoid index) as an aid in diagnosis. METHODS AND