Context: Acromegaly can be complicated by cardiomyopathy. Treatment with somatostatin analogs has been shown to improve some cardiac parameters, but most published clinical trials involved few patients and were not randomized or controlled. In addition, their results are rather variable.

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis aimed at obtaining a more accurate picture of the effect of somatostatin analogs on the heart in patients with acromegaly.

Design: We systematically reviewed all studies of somatostatin analogs in acromegaly. Eighteen studies were identified in three databases. We conducted a combined analysis of the effects of somatostatin analogs by using the overall effect size to evaluate significance and by computing the weighted mean differences with and without treatment to assess the effect size.

Results: Somatostatin analog treatment was associated with significant reductions in the heart rate (-5.8 [2.1] beats/min), the left ventricular mass index (-22.3 [6.7] g/m²), inter-ventricular septum thickness (-0.3 [0.2] mm), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (-0.8 [0.4] mm) and the ratio of the E-wave and A-wave peak velocities of the mitral flow profile (0.2 [0.1]). It was also associated with improved exercise tolerance (+1.6 [0.4] min]. Trends towards beneficial effects were noted for the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (-1.5 [2.2] mm) and the left ventricular ejection fraction (3.3 [1.7] %). Overall effect sizes were not significant for blood pressure, left ventricular end-systolic dimension or fractional shortening. Bigger improvements were observed in studies with larger falls in IGF-I and/or GH levels, and in studies of younger patients.

Conclusion: This meta-analysis confirms that somatostatin analog therapy aimed at achieving stringent control of serum GH/IGF-I concentrations in patients with acromegaly is associated with significant positive effects on morphological and functional hemodynamic parameters.