Evaluating the informativity and specificity of diagnostic criteria for primary screening for acromegaly

Background. The most effective method for early diagnosis of any disease, and especially such rare as acromegaly, is considered to be population screening in high­risk groups, the introduction of which in Ukraine requires the development of methodological approaches and economic substantiation. The purpose of the study: based on a comparative analysis, to determine the informativity and specificity of questions that will be included in the questionnaire of primary screening for acromegaly. Materials and methods. The survey was conducted in two groups of people: group 1 — patients with diagnosis of acromegaly verified in the neuroendocrinology center of State Institution “V. Danilevsky Institute for Endocrine Patho­logy Problems of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine” (n = 123); group 2 (n = 550) — persons from the risk group, namely, those who came to an outpatient visit to a general practitioner, therapist, cardiologist, endocrinologist for various reasons and in the presence of somatic and/or endocrine pathology. The evaluation of the obtained data was carried out by the analysis of variance using the software complex SPSS 19.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results. The first set of questions in the developed questionnaire is the evaluation of phenotypic characteristics, that is, the patient’s assessment of changes in his/her appearance. The second set of questions is the determination of complaints by patients that can be a sign of the presence of a pathological process in the central nervous system and pituitary gland. Based on the comparative analysis, in the final version, the questionnaire had 11 questions, which reflect the most significant signs and clinical manifestations of permanent excessive growth hormone. The questionnaire is intended for interviewing individuals at risk in order to carry out opportunistic screening for acromegaly. Conclusions. The proposed method for evaluating the significance of clinical signs of acromegaly allows us to determine with a high degree of pro­bability the final questions for the screening questionnaire.