ESPE Abstracts

Background: Hypothalamic obesity caused by childhood–onset craniopharyngioma results in long–term cardiovascular morbidity. Knowledge about clinical markers and risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity is scarce.

Patients and Methods: A cross–sectional study on transthoracic echocardiographic parameters was performed to determine the associations with clinical and anthropometric parameters in 36 craniopharyngioma patients.

Results: BMI correlated with the thickness of interventricular septum in diastole (IVSd) (r = 0.604, P < 0.001) and left ventricular diastolic posterior wall in diastole (LVPWd) (r = 0.460, P = 0.011). In multivariate analyses on risk factors for cardiac remodeling, sex hormone replacement therapy, BMI and male gender were positively correlated with increased left ventricular internal diameter in diastole (LVIDd), R2=0.596, F=10.323, P < 0.001. BMI and insulin resistance were selected as significant independent determinants of IVSd, produced R2=0.655, F=29.441, P < 0.001. Due to wide range of disease duration, 17 pediatric and 19 adult patients were analyzed separately. In the adult subgroup (age at study ≥18 years), BMI correlated with IVSd (r = 0.707, P = 0.003), LVPWd (r = 0.592, P = 0.020) and LVIDd (r = 0.571, P = 0.026). In the pediatric subgroup (age at study <18 years), no correlation between TTE parameters and BMI was observed. Only LVIDd correlated with disease duration (r = 0.645, P < 0.001). All cardiac functions were within the normal range, indicating no association with functional impairments.

Conclusions: Cardiac remodeling in patients with craniopharyngioma correlated with the degree of hypothalamic obesity, disease duration, sex hormone replacement therapy, male gender and insulin resistance. As echocardiography has limited sensitivity in patients with obesity, further research on more sensitive techniques for cardiac diagnostics in craniopharyngioma patients is warranted.