Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Evidence of dysexecutive syndrome in patients with acromegaly

  • Published:
Pituitary Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to explore different aspects of executive function in patients with acromegaly and investigate the cause of dysexecutive syndrome in these patients.

Methods

We conducted five typical executive function tests (Stroop test, verbal fluency [VF] test, Hayling Sentence Completion Test [HSCT], N-back test, and Sustained Attention to Response Task [SART]) on 42 acromegalic patients and 42 strictly matched healthy controls. Comparative analyses were conducted for five major executive function domains. The Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) was used to assess patients’ subjective feelings about their executive function. All patients underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination and a blood test to determine their pituitary hormone levels before the tests were performed.

Results

The patients exhibited worse results on the Stroop test, VF test, HSCT and N-back test compared to the healthy control group. Moreover, part B of the HSCT and the N-back test performance were negatively correlated with IGF-1 concentrations, and the duration of the disease was significantly associated with the Stroop color task results.

Conclusions

Acromegalic patients were severely impaired in semantic inhibition, executive processing, working memory and executive inhibition, and they have realized a portion of these deficits. A high level of IGF-1, disease duration may contribute to the impairment of specific aspects of executive function.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Holdaway IM, Rajasoorya RC, Gamble GD (2004) Factors influencing mortality in acromegaly. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 89(2):667–674

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Melmed S, Casanueva FF, Klibanski A et al (2013) A consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of acromegaly complications. Pituitary 16(3):294

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Melmed S (2016) New therapeutic agents for acromegaly. Nat Rev Endocrinol 12(2):90–98

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Abreu A, Tovar AP, Castellanos R et al (2016) Challenges in the diagnosis and management of acromegaly: a focus on comorbidities. Pituitary 19(4):448–457

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Colao A, Ferone D, Marzullo P, Lombardi G (2004) Systemic complications of acromegaly: epidemiology, pathogenesis, and management. Endocr Rev 25(1):102

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Leoncarrion J, Martinrodriguez JF, Madrazoatutxa A et al (2010) Evidence of cognitive and neurophysiological impairment in patients with untreated naive acromegaly. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 95(9):4367–4379

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chan RCK, Shum D, Toulopoulou T, Chen EYH (2008) Assessment of executive functions: Review of instruments and identification of critical issues. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 23(2):201

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Elliott R (2003) Executive functions and their disorders. Br Med Bull 65(486):49–59

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Monsell S (2003) Task switching. Trends Cogn Sci 7(3):134–140

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Katznelson L, Atkinson JL, Cook DM, Ezzat SZ, Hamrahian AH, Miller KK (2011) American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Medical Guidelines for Clinical Practice for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acromegaly–2011 update: executive summary. Endocr Pract Off J Am Coll Endocrinol Am Assoc Clin Endocrinol 17(4):1–44

    Google Scholar 

  11. Knosp E, Steiner E, Kitz K, Matula C (1993) Pituitary adenomas with invasion of the cavernous sinus space: a magnetic resonance imaging classification compared with surgical findings. Neurosurgery 33(4):610–618

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Cottier JP, Destrieux C, Brunereau L et al (2000) Cavernous sinus invasion by pituitary adenoma: MR imaging. Radiology 215(2):463–469

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Lee TM, Chan CC (2000) Stroop interference in Chinese and English. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 22(22):465–471

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Burgess PW, Veitch E, De LCA, Shallice T (2000) The cognitive and neuroanatomical correlates of multitasking. Neuropsychologia 38(6):848–863

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Fang L, Huang J, Zhang Q, Chan RC, Wang R, Wan W (2016) Different aspects of dysexecutive syndrome in patients with moyamoya disease and its clinical subtypes. J Neurosurg 125(2):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Johnson-Selfridge MT, Zalewski C, Aboudarham JF (1998) The relationship between ethnicity and word fluency. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 13(3):319–325

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Callicott JH, Ramsey NF, Tallent K et al (1998) Functional magnetic resonance imaging brain mapping in psychiatry: Methodological issues illustrated in a study of working memory in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology 18(3):186–196

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Chan RC, Chen EY, Cheung EF, Chen RY, Cheung HK (2004) A study of sensitivity of the sustained attention to response task in patients with schizophrenia. Clin Neuropsychol 18(1):114–121

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Robertson IH, Manly T, Andrade J, Baddeley BT, Yiend J (1997) ‘Oops!’: performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia 35(6):747–758

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Chan RCK (2001) Dysexecutive symptoms among a non-clinical sample: A study with the use of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire. Br J Psychol 92(3):551–565

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Sievers C, Samann PG, Pfister H et al (2012) Cognitive function in acromegaly: description and brain volumetric correlates. Pituitary 15(3):350–357

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Crespo I, Santos A, Valassi E, Pires P, Webb SM, Resmini E (2015) Impaired decision making and delayed memory are related with anxiety and depressive symptoms in acromegaly. Endocrine 50(3):756–763

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Tanriverdi F, Yapislar H, Karaca Z, Unluhizarci K, Suer C, Kelestimur F (2008) Evaluation of cognitive performance by using P300 auditory event related potentials (ERPs) in patients with growth hormone (GH) deficiency and acromegaly. Growth Horm Igf Res Off J Growth Horm Res Soc Int Igf Res Soc 19(1):24–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Sievers C, Sämann PG, Dose T et al (2009) Macroscopic brain architecture changes and white matter pathology in acromegaly: a clinicoradiological study. Pituitary 12(3):177

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Crespo I, Webb SM (2014) Perception of health and cognitive dysfunction in acromegaly patients. Endocrine 46(3):365–367

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Burke SN, Barnes CA (2006) Neural plasticity in the ageing brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 7(1):30–40

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Sonntag WE, Ramsey M, Carter CS (2005) Growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and their influence on cognitive aging. Ageing Res Rev 4(2):195

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Müssig K, Leyhe T, Besemer B et al (2009) Younger age is a good predictor of better executive function after surgery for pituitary adenoma in adults. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 15(5):803–806

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all the authors of the included studies.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81,172,192 and 31,100,747) and the High-level Health Technology Personnel Training Program of Beijing Health System (Grant No. 2014-3-036).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 6 Tiantan Xili, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100050, China

    Shaobo Shan, Lingling Fang, Guijun Jia & Weiqing Wan

  2. China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China

    Shaobo Shan, Lingling Fang, Guijun Jia & Weiqing Wan

  3. Center for Stroke, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China

    Shaobo Shan, Lingling Fang, Guijun Jia & Weiqing Wan

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine for Cerebrovascular Disease, Beijing, China

    Shaobo Shan, Lingling Fang, Guijun Jia & Weiqing Wan

  5. Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jia Huang & Raymond C. K. Chan

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jia Huang & Raymond C. K. Chan

Authors
  1. Shaobo Shan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lingling Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jia Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Raymond C. K. Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Guijun Jia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Weiqing Wan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weiqing Wan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all of the individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shan, S., Fang, L., Huang, J. et al. Evidence of dysexecutive syndrome in patients with acromegaly. Pituitary 20, 661–667 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11102-017-0831-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11102-017-0831-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation