Endocrine Abstracts

Currently, the multi-ligand somatostatin (SS) analogue pasireotide (SOM230) is the only pituitary-targeted drug used to treat patients with Cushing’s disease. SOM230 displays the highest affinity to somatostatin receptor type 5 (SSTR5) and compared to octreotide resulted more effective in reducing ACTH release. Despite its anti-secretory role, SOM230 has been associated with tumor shrinkage in patients subjected to long term treatment, although to date the key factors inv...

Background: The treatment of choice in patients with Cushing Disease (CD) is pituitary surgery (PS). A successful PS is generally followed by adrenal insufficiency (AI). Although the remission rate after PS may reach 96.6% of cases, approximately 1/3 of cured patients experience the recurrence of the disease during lifetime. The aim of this study was to analyze the duration of AI in relation with the recurrence of CD.Materials and methods: We performed a...

ObjectiveSeveral studies showed that patients discontinuing denosumab (Dmab) may experience bone loss and incident vertebral fractures (VFx) due to a rebound bone turnover increase, suggesting the need of anti-resorptive (i.e. bisphosphonate BPs) therapy to mitigate this occurrence. However, the morphometric VFx (morphoVFx) incidence after Dmab discontinuation is unknown and scarce data are available about the BPs effect on BMD changes and Fx risk in thi...

IntroductionLangherans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease due to a neoplastic proliferation of Langerhans-type cells. Hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) involvement may occur in 20–40% of the patients, presenting with diabetes insipidus (DI) and/or anterior pituitary dysfunction. Typically, such abnormalities are permanent and unresponsive to systemic treatment of LCH. We report the case of a young woman with pulmonary and HP localizations, and sig...

Introduction: The effects of testosterone on coagulation have not yet been clarified. In particular, it is still controversial whether male hypogonadism, or testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), may slightly increase the risk of venous thromboembolism, in particular during the first months of therapy. This study aimed to assess the hemostatic balance in hypogonadal men before and after short-term TRT, compared to healthy controls.Methods: Thrombin gene...

Since the first description of inactivating PTH/PTHrP signaling disorders (iPPSDs, historically named pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP)) a remarkable clinical variability was observed, especially in clinical presentation, which seems to be age-dependent. The main clinical features, including PTH resistance, brachydactyly and short stature, develop during mid and late childhood, whilst minor clinical features such as a round face, rapid weight gain and subclinical hypothyroidism a...

Inactivating PTH/PTHrP signaling disorders (iPPSDs, historically named pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP)) are a group of rare disorders associated with resistance to parathormone (PTH) and other hormones due to impaired hormonal signaling via G protein coupled receptors. Hypercalcitoninemia has been reported in these patients, however very few reports are available. The aim of this study was to further investigate the prevalence and characteristics of hypercalcitoninemia in both ...

Background: In a previous study, we retrospectively analysed a group of patients with high insulin growth factor 1 (IGF1) but normal growth hormone (GH) suppression, identifying among them a subgroup of “micromegalic” patients presenting with clinical features of acromegaly and high rate of comorbidities. We therefore expanded our cohort of patients, extended the follow-up time and collected preliminary data on treatment response aiming to better characterize this co...

Aim: The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the efficacy of different doses of rituximab (RTX) in patients with active moderate-severe Graves’ Orbitopathy (GO).Methods: Overall 40 patients, 5 M/35 F; mean age (± S.D.) 58±11 years were treated with RTX; 21 were smokers. The patients received the following treatment: 14 patients (group 1) a single 100 mg dose; 15 patients (group 2) a single 500 mg dose and 11 Patien...

Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACCs) are rare endocrine tumors with poor prognosis. The insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) is overexpressed in the great majority of ACC, and IGF2/IGF1R pathway acts as a proliferative autocrine loop, but to date IGF1R-targeted therapies have demonstrated a limited efficacy and the molecular mechanisms regulating this pathway are still unknown. The cytoskeleton acting-binding protein filamin A (FLNA), determinant in cancer progression and metastasi...