Table 1.
Characteristics of the patient samples included in the study.
Table 2.
Neuropsychological test results for acromegaly groups and healthy controls.
Figure 1.
Relationship between clinical predictors obtained from multivariate regression analysis and cognitive data.
(A) longer duration of untreated acromegaly (in months) is independently associated with worse visual memory performance. Higher GH levels are independently associated with worse visual memory recall in patients with naïve acromegaly, but not in cured patients. (B) shorter biochemical remission is positively associated with worse visual memory recall. CFT, Complex Figure Test. Partial R2 were calculated controlling for the other variables in the model.
Figure 2.
Neurophysiological results of patients with acromegaly.
(A) Power spectra differences (frequency range: 1–40 Hz) among patient groups and healthy controls. Decreased EEG power was observed in fast bands (alpha and beta) for both patient groups. Note the decreased power in patients with acromegaly at peak alpha frequency, 10 Hz. (B) LORETA comparisons between acromegaly patients and healthy controls. Upper panel: comparison between cured patients and healthy subjects. Highest significant LORETA differences were found in left medial temporal cortex in beta 2 band (4 significant neighboring voxels, 1.37 cm3, p<0.04) and beta 3 band (15 significant neighboring voxels, 5.14 cm3, p<0.007). Cured patients showed significantly lower LORETA activity than healthy subjects in cortical areas shown in blue. Lower panel: comparison between naïve patients and healthy subjects. Highest significant LORETA differences were found in left medial temporal cortex in beta 2 band (8 significant neighboring voxels, 2.74 cm3, p<0.012) and beta 3 band (30 significant neighboring voxels, 10.29 cm3, p<0.005) and in right dorsolateral PFC in alpha (8 significant neighboring voxels, 2.74 cm3, p<0.012) and beta 1 (28 significant neighboring voxels, 9.604 cm3, p<0.006) bands. Naïve patients showed significantly lower LORETA activity than healthy subjects in cortical areas shown in blue. Scales show maximal t value and maximal significant t value (p<0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). (C) ROI analysis comparisons among groups. ROI LORETA activity in acromegaly patients is reduced as compared to healthy subjects. *p<0.05; **p<0.01, corrected for multiple comparisons.
Table 3.
Correlation coefficients (Pearson’s r), with associated p values (calculated after 5,000 randomizations) for the correlation analysis between LORETA ROI activity and performance in delayed recall tests.
Figure 3.
Relationship between clinical predictors obtained from multivariate regression analysis and LORETA data.
(A) lower LORETA Z-scores in left medial temporal cortex were associated with longer duration of untreated acromegaly. (B) higher GH levels were associated with decreased LORETA Z-scores in rPFC in patients with naïve acromegaly, but not in cured patients. (C) lower LORETA Z-scores in beta lMTC and rPFC was associated to shorter biochemical remission. rPFC, right prefrontal cortex; lMTC, left medial temporal cortex. Partial R2 were calculated controlling for the other variables in the model.