Endocrine Abstracts

Several lines of evidence indicate an increased risk of adverse gestational outcomes in women with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) already as of TSH levels at early pregnancy >2.5mU/l, and definitely greater for TSH concentration >4mU/l. The latest guidelines recommend preconception TSH levels (pre-C-TSH) in HT women be maintained below 2.5mU/l, this threshold being expected to prevent hypothyroidism occurrence at early gestation.Objectives: To...

Context: Chronic hypercortisolism is known to impact the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis, through a disruption of both thyrotropin-releasing-hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) release. These changes, in turn, are responsible for reduced triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) synthesis and secretion, eventually resulting in central hypothyroidism (C-Hypo). However, data on magnitude and timing of recovery of the above abnormalities are still controversial...

Background and objectives: Recent data on median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in schoolchildren showed that Italy has achieved iodine sufficiency. Nevertheless, no national data on iodine nutrition in pregnancy are available. Therefore, a multicentre study coordinated by the Italian National Observatory for Monitoring Iodine Prophylaxis (OSNAMI), was launched in 8 Italian regions representative of the Northern (Lombardy, Veneto, Liguria), Central (Tuscany, Lazio) and Sou...

Graves’ disease (GD) and gestational transient thyrotoxicosis (GTT) are the main causes of hyperthyroidism in pregnancy, their prevalence ranging between 0.1–0.4% and 0.3–11%, respectively.Aim of the study: To evaluate both prevalence and outcome of gestational hyperthyroidism in mild to moderate ID areas.Subjects and methods: 482 consecutive pregnant women who had never undergone thyroid function evaluation before a...

The prevalence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in lingual thyroid (LT) and thyroglossal duct cysts (TDC) is around 1%. Nowadays, almost 200 cases of DTC were reported in TDC and <60 cases in LT. Here we report four cases of neoplasia in LT (1/4) and TDC (3/4) in a consecutive series of 950 DTC patients (0.4%).Case 1: D.F. 63 year-old woman with thyroid follicular carcinoma in ectopic gland located at her tongue’s basis. March 2009: the...

Autoimmune hypothyroidism due to thyroid stimulation blocking antibodies (TSB-Ab) is uncommon. When occurring in pregnancy, this condition may be responsible for feto-neonatal complications as a result of both maternal hypothyroidism and trans-placental TSB-Ab transfer to the fetus.Clinical case: September 2010: a 27 year-old woman was diagnosed with autoimmune severe hypothyroidism (TSH 325 mIU/l (n.v 0.4–4.0), FT4 1.54 pmol/l (n.v. 11.5...

Introduction: Pituicytoma is a rare, primary benign, tumor of the sellar and suprasellar regions which is arising from pituicytes of the neurohypophysis and infundibulum and mainly affects middle age adults. We present here such a casePresentation: A 64-years-old man was referred to our clinic. For further investigation of a sellar lesion with suprasellar extension. The patient underwent investigations due to visual disturbances which he noticed initiall...

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is one of the major causes of female infertility, affecting about 3.7% of women before the age of 40. POI is associated with the premature loss of ovarian function and can manifest with primary amenorrhea (PA) or post-pubertal secondary amenorrhea (SA), with elevated gonadotropins and hypoestrogenism. Several evidence established a clear genetic component to POI, albeit heterogeneous. In search of novel causative genes, we screened 64 POI pa...

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) affects 1% of women before age 40 years, and in 70-90% of cases is defined as idiopathic. Although numerous POI-associated genes have been identified in recent years, the prevalence and pathogenicity of individual rare gene variants is still difficult to establish. The aim of our study was to retrospectively analyze the correlation between genotype and phenotype in patients with idiopathic POI, providing a more detailed characterization of P...

Background: Solitary fibrous tumor of pleura represents a prototypical mesenchymal neoplasm that induces non-islet cell tumor hypoglycemia due to overproduction of insulin-like growth factor 2, named Dodge Potter syndrome.Case Presentation: An 86-year-old man, non-diabetic, was admitted to hospital with a few months history of repetitive hypoglycemic symptoms and documented low blood glucose of 1.9 and 1.2 mmol/L on two occasions when he lost consciousne...