The role of growth hormone and IGF-1 in retinopathy: a prospective study of retinopathy in patients with acromegaly and impaired fasting glucose

AIMS: To investigate the effects of the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) axis on the incidence and progression of retinopathy. METHODS: We enrolled 91 patients with acromegaly and 123 subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) between 2008 and 2016 to examine the incidence and prevalence of retinopathy. Patients attended follow-ups in our clinics and underwent examinations according to the national guidelines for diabetes management. Both cohorts attended follow-ups until June 2019. RESULTS: Both groups had similar HbA1c, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels. However, patients with acromegaly had higher GH (8.05 ± 16.18 vs. 0.78 ± 1.25 ng/mL) and IGF-1 (547.0 ± 342.1 vs. 146.7 ± 51.4 ng/mL) levels than in subjects with IFG. During the follow-up period, 8 patients (8.8%) with acromegaly and 12 patients (9.8%) with IFG developed some degree of retinopathy. Three patients with acromegaly and two with IFG progressed to proliferative retinopathy. Patients with acromegaly had the same incidence of non-proliferative retinopathy (odds ratio [OR] 0.830; 95% CI 0.318–2.164) and a non-statistically significantly higher incidence of proliferative retinopathy (OR 2.461; 95% CI 0.404–14.988). CONCLUSION: The data reveals that GH and IGF-1 might play a crucial role in the development of proliferative retinopathy and influence its progression. Therefore, we suggest screening patients with acromegaly should be similar to diabetes patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13098-022-00806-z.