Endocrine Abstracts

Hyperthyroid patients show an impaired response or even resistance to digoxin treatment.Objectives: 1. Are there any differences in the pharmacokinetics of a single oral dose of digoxin between hyperthyroid and euthyroid patients? 2. Does simultaneous administration of digoxin and methimazole or digoxin and acebutolol affect the pharmacokinetics of a single oral dose of dogoxin? 3. Does methimazole-induced euthyroidism change the pharmacokinetics of a si...

Introduction: Glucokinase-MODY (Maturity onset diabetes of the young) results from heterozygous mutations in the GCK gene, impairing its enzymatic activity. GCK acts as a glucose sensor in the pancreatic beta cell and regulates insulin secretion. We describe two cases of MODY due to a GCK gene mutation not described until now.Clinical Case: A 63-year-old male is followed in our hospital for 30 years due to diabetes mellitus (DM). He was diagnose...

Background: Gigantism and acromegaly are the main consequences of GH excess, mainly due to a pituitary adenoma. Surgery is the first therapeutic option, but also medical therapy is employed, being represented mostly by somatostatin analogues (SSA), that reduce both tumour mass and GH hypersecretion. However about 10% of patients is resistant to SSA.PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, activated by growth-factors such as IGF1, is important in regulating many cellular p...

Background: Neuroblastomas are malignant tumors that arise from sympathetic plexus or adrenal medulla. Their clinical behavior can range from spontaneous regression to aggressive disease. Like paragangliomas, they have the capacity to secrete catecholamines and to express somatostatin receptors, which is important for diagnostic and treatment purposes. However, the differential diagnosis with paraganglioma can be challenging. We present a case of a catecholamine-producing tumo...

Graves’ disease is characterized by the occurrence of antibodies against thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor that stimulate the gland to produce T4 and T3. It can be accompanied by an infiltrative orbitopathy and oftalmopathy. Another seldom- regognized feature of this disease is thymic hyperplasia.The authors report the case of a 22-year-old woman with Graves’ disease (TSH receptor antibodies 178 U/l) with exuberant oftalmopathy and an ...

Objective: Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several immune-mediated disorders, including autoimmune thyroid disease. Aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between dietary habit and redox homeostasis, in relationship with thyroid autoimmunity.Materials and methods: We enrolled 200 healthy subjects (173 F, mean age 35 ± 12). None of them was under any pharmacological treatment. Exclusion criteria: any infectio...

Introduction: There is no known reliability about an undetectable recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) stimulated serum thyroglobulin (Tg) concentrations, predicts no long-term relapse, or the threshold of it. An rhTSH-stimulated serum Tg determination was made to all patients with DTC that maintained undetectable baseline Tg and negative imaging tests. We correlate their findings with their long-term evolution.Methods: We collected 91 patients with DTC, 73 wom...

Objective: AGEs, compounds formed by the transformation of proteins, are increased in conditions of oxidative stress and promote inflammation by interacting with their receptor (RAGE) on cell membrane. By contrast, the soluble receptor for AGE (sRAGE), that is proteolytically cleaved from cell surface receptor via matrix metalloproteinases, sequester RAGE ligands and act as a cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory agent. AGEs/sRAGE interaction play a role in the pathogenesis of ...

Introduction: Non-islet cell tumor induced hypoglycemia (NICTH) is a paraneoplastic phenomenon involving many types of tumors. It is associated with the secretion of incompletely processed precursors of IGF-2 resulting in a persistent insulin-like activity and hypoglycemia. Most commonly, IGF-2–linked hypoglycemia has been observed in patients with solid mesenchymal or epithelial tumors. Typically, elevated IGF-2 levels are associated with suppressed plasma levels of insu...

Vitamin D has a role in the pathogenesis of thyroid autoimmunity.There is evidence in humans that serum levels of 1,25(OH) D3 were found to be significantly lower in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases.We have evaluated all samples performed in the endocrine labs tested for vitamin D, AbTg, Ab-TPO and TSH from 2006 to 2015; 29216 samples for vitamin D and 41014 for TSH, AbTg and TPO were considered.We s...