This review paper was designed to discuss the accumulated worldwide experience with selective collection of blood from the inferior petrose sinuses for the purpose of differential diagnostics of ACTH-dependent hypercorticism. The history of the development of the method is described, principal indications and contraindications to its clinical application are considered with reference to the informative value of this diagnostic tool. Possible causes of false positive and false negative results as well as complications ever reported as associated with the diagnostic procedure are discussed. Much attention is given to the comparative analysis of advantages and disadvantages of alternative techniques for blood collection and to the use of pharmaceutical agents that may increase efficiency of the method under consideration.

BACKGROUND: The registry is the main source of information about patients with acromegaly for assessing the quality of medical care, effectiveness of treatment, determining the compliance of real clinical practice with existing standards and patient management protocols. AIMS: To evaluate epidemiological, demographic and clinical characteristics of acromegaly in Russian Federation and effectiveness of treatment modalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The object of the study was the database of the united Russian registry of patients with pituitary tumors with specific analysis of patients with acromegaly only. We analyzed the data of 4114 patients with acromegaly stored on the online system in February 2019. RESULTS: Based on the data 32% of patients had complete clinical and laboratory remission of acromegaly; the percentage of patients with no remission was 68%, among them 22.5% had significant improvements in clinical symptoms and a decrease in growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) without IGF-1 normalization. The average age of patients at the onset of the disease was 42.7 years and at diagnosis 45.8 years. The ratio of men to women was 1:2.6. In patients with acromegaly hypopituitarism was registered in 14.7% of cases and among them hypothyroidism (66%) and hypogonadism (52%) were registered more often. Among other complications the leading were diabetes mellitus (15.7%) and acromegalic arthropathy (15%). The proportion of patients receiving neurosurgical treatment increased from 35.7% to 49.6% in 20122019; the portion of patients undergoing radiation therapy decreased significantly from 17.7% in 2012 to 0.8% in 2019. Remission was achieved in 40.47% after neurosurgery and 28.95% after medical treatment as a first line therapy p0.01. The number of patients receiving medical treatment at the time of the study was 1209. Among them 51% of patients treated with long-acting lanreotide and 24% receiving long-acting octreotide achieved remission (p0.0001) CONCLUSIONS: The remission rate of acromegaly remains suboptimal despite increased surgical activity, which corresponds to global trends. Long-acting lanreotide was significantly superior versus long-acting octreotide in the rate of acromegaly remission, which does not correspond with clinical trials.

Hyperprolactinemia is a persistent excess of the blood serum prolactin. The syndrome contains various symptoms, the most characteristic is a violation of the reproductive system. There are multiple endogenous and exogenous causes of hyperprolactinemia. The main treatment method is dopamine agonist therapy, in case of prolactinoma existence, surgical and radiation methods can be applied. About 15% of patients are resistant to dopamine agonist therapy, which determines creation of individual management tactics. The article presents a draft of clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of hyperprolactinemia, which provides a modern examination algorithm, discusses the basic principles of diagnostics and treatment approaches.

We do not recommend population screening for diabetes insipidus (DI) (B3). We recommend to perform diagnostic testing for central diabetes insipidus (CDI) in patients who underwent neurosurgery, after skull and brain trauma, subarchnoid hemorrhage (B3). We recommend excluding thirst impairment during all stages of diagnostic assessment (С3). We recommend excluding DI in cases of persistent hypotonic polyuria: excretion of more than 3 L. or more than 40 mL/kg of urine daily; urine osmolality less than 300 mOsm/kg or urinary specific gravity less than 1004 g/L in all urine samples or during Zimnitsky test (В3). After hypotonic polyuria is confirmed, we recommend excluding of the main causes of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) (B3). We recommend simultaneous measurement of urine osmolality and blood osmolality/sodium level in order to confirm DI. Blood hyperosmolality (more than 300 mOsm/kg) and/or hypernatremia with low urine osmolality (less than 300 mOsm/kg) confirms DI (B2). If testing does not reveal these findings, we recommend performing a fluid deprivation test to exclude primary polydipsia (PP) (B2). Desmopressin test is recommended to distinguish CDI and NDI (B2). In cases of CDI we recommend to perform head MRI with contrast (B3). In cases of NDI we recommend assessing renal structure and function and possible electrolyte disturbances (C3). In cases of PP we recommend to refer a patient to psychiatrist (B3). We recommend treating CDI with synthetic vasopressin analogue desmopressin (B1). We recommend an individual approach in choosing desmopressin dosage form (B2). As the initial dose is difficult to predict when starting desmopressin treatment, we recommend titrating the dosage using two approaches: the average dose and as required (C4). We recommend educating the patients to ensure knowledge of the features of various desmopressin dosage forms (C4). To decrease the risk of water intoxication, we recommend educating the patients to the water intake regimen adherence (С4). When CDI is accompanied by thirst impairment, we recommend titrating the dose in a clinical setting, with assessment of blood sodium, bodyweight and/or urine volume (C4).

We recommend acromegaly to be ruled in all patients with characteristic changes in appearance (A3). In all patients without characteristic changes in appearance, we recommend to rule out acromegaly, if several clinical signs suspicious for acromegaly are present (B3). We recommend acromegaly to be ruled out in all patients with pituitary adenoma (B3). We recommend to rule out acromegaly in all patients with prolactin-secreting adenomas (C4). For laboratory confirmation of acromegaly, we recommend to measure serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1, somatomedin C) level (A3). In patients without obvious clinical signs of acromegaly and/or with a moderate increase in IGF-1 levels (IGF-1 index less than 1.3), we recommend to assess the response of somatotropic hormone (GH) to hyperglycemia (GH during an oral glucose tolerance test) (B3). In all patients with biochemically confirmed acromegaly, magnetic resonance imaging of the pituitary gland with intravenous contrast is recommended to assess pituitary adenoma size, location and growth pattern (A3). We recommend to measure blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin in all patients with confirmed acromegaly (B3). We recommend to measure serum prolactin levels in all patients with acromegaly (B3).In all patients with acromegaly and pituitary adenoma, transnasal transsphenoidal adenomectomy is recommended as first-line treatment if the patient’s consent is given and there are no contraindications (A1). For all patients with acromegaly for whom neurosurgical treatment is indicated, surgical intervention is recommended in medical centers, specializing in pituitary diseases, by neurosurgeons who perform at least 50 such operations per year (A3). We recommend that morphological and immunohistochemical examination of the removed pituitary adenoma is performed in all patients with acromegaly (A3). We do not recommend routine medical therapy for acromegaly before surgery as a mean to reduce tumor size (B2).For patients with acromegaly in whom neurosurgical treatment is not indicated or ineffective or while patient awaiting for the effect of radiation therapy, we recommend medical therapy (A1). Long-acting first-generation somatostatin analogues are recommended as first-line drug therapy for acromegaly. In case of partial/complete resistance to or intolerance to somatostatin analogs, pegvisomant is recommended as a second-line medical therapy for acromegaly (A1). We recommend starting pegvisomant from a single dose of 40–80 mg per day subcutaneously, then continue injections at a starting dose of 10 or 15 mg per day with IGF-1 monitoring after 4–6 weeks and dose adjustment if necessary (B2). In patients with acromegaly and a moderate increase in IGF-1 levels, we recommend to initiate cabergoline as medical monotherapy or, if somatostatin analogs are ineffective, in combination with them (B2).In patients with acromegaly, if the disease remains active after surgical treatment, if drug treatment is unavailable, intolerable or ineffective, and repeated neurosurgical intervention is inappropriate, it is we recommend radiation therapy (A1). A multidisciplinary approach is recommended in the management of acromegaly complications (C3).