Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Cardiac fibrosis is a common biological response to cardiovascular injury. Maladaptive cardiac fibrosis as observed in patients with hypertension, obesity or diabetes mellitus contributes to contractile dysfunction and electrophysiological disorders. Currently, there is controversy regarding whetherexposure to a high fat diet (HFD) in isolation induces cardiovascular damage and fibrosis. Here, we set out to explore the contribution of different models of obesity to...

Resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH) is a rare dominantly inherited condition of impaired tissue responsiveness to thyroid hormones. Different tissue may exhibit variable degree of resistance and clinical presentation probably depending on the heterogeneity of factors that modulate the isoform of thyroid hormone receptor (THR). The heart shows different isoforms of THR and few data is reported on the cardiac functionally effects of the phenotypic heterogeneity; echocardiography...

Introduction: Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) accounts for <1% of all forms of primary hyperparathyroidism. PC is characterized by very high serum PTH and calcium levels and presents with osteopenia/osteoporosis, nephrolithiasis, asthenia, neuropsychiatric symptoms. Here, we report the unusual presentation of a PC.Case presentation: A 48-year-old woman was referred to our Center for the sudden appearance of a large painful hematoma in the cervico-mediasti...

Context: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin which requires the hydroxylation into 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH)2D3) to be fully active. Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem associated to a wide range of acute and chronic diseases. On other hand, vitamin D supplementation has been proposed to reduced the risk of metabolic dysfunctions including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D interacts with the epigenetic m...

Context: Metabolic diseases affect millions of people in both developed and transition countries. In addition to genetic inheritance of risk alleles, emerging evidence has shown that these diseases are also linked to lifestyle and inherited epigenetic pattern interactions. The strong link between epigenetics and metabolism may offer attractive clinical applications to counteract and manage the escalating prevalence of metabolic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellit...

The ectopic secretion of corticotropin from no pituitary tumours causes ~10–20% of cases of Cushing’s syndrome. Enteropancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma represents a rare cause of ectopic ACTH syndrome.Case: A 51 years-old woman without past medical history was admitted by gain weight, facial oedema 4 months previous. Physical examination: BP 167/124, cardiac rate 49 bpm, facial oedema, troncular obesity. No others abnormalities. Laboratory te...

Lipocalin-2 (LCN2) is a glycoprotein synthetized by various cell types, including neutrophils, that acts as siderophores scavenger and play an important role in different chronic inflammatory processes. Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) and Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency (AGHD), both partial and total, are characterized by inflammatory features. The objectives of our cross-sectional study were: 1) to compare LCN2 levels in these clinical pictures; 2) to evaluate the relations between...

Background: Ghrelin and its endogenous antagonist liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide-2 (LEAP-2) are involved in GH secretion, both acting on GSH-r1α, and regulation of glucose and lipids metabolism. Metabolic impairments are often accompanied by an upregulation of LEAP-2 expression, with a usual concomitant reduction in ghrelin secretion. Adult growth hormone deficiency (aGHD), characterized by weight gain, increased fat mass and insulin resistance, represent a conditi...

Background: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is the diagnostic procedure of choice in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. Nodules with indeterminate cytological categories, Tir3A and Tir3B according to Italian cytological classification, pose diagnostic challenges in clinical practice and are frequently submitted to diagnostic surgery. CytoFoam Core (CF) (Diapath, Martinengo, Italy) uses an absorbent foam device inserted into the needle hub to collect the cytological sample aspirat...

Background: Increased rates of autoimmune diseases (ADs) have been reported in association with Hashimoto′s thyroiditis (HT); however, the risk factors for coexisting ADs in HT patients have been poorly investigated.Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with AD comorbidities in patients with HT.Materials and Methods: We recruited 687 patients (626 F and 61 M, mean age at diagnosis 39 ± 14.06 yr, F:...