New bone formation in acromegaly: pathogenetic implications for diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.

Radiographs of spinal and heel entheseal areas and the skull were examined for new bone formation in 30 acromegalic patients. Forty-seven percent satisfied accepted criteria for Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH), 67% had marked heel enthesopathic change and 87% had Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna (HFI). Such hyperostotic changes were indistinguishable from those seen in DISH and the extent and degree of such changes increased with duration of acromegaly. It is proposed that a common metabolic factor, e.g., hyperinsulinaemia, may be responsible for the hyperostotic changes seen in both DISH and acromegaly.