Endocrine Abstracts

Over the past several years, growing evidence suggested that serum cortisol is associated with increased cardiovascular (CVD) mortality in patients with chronic heart failure. The prognostic significance of serum cortisol concentration (SCC) in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) however is unknown.In the prospective Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study 3316 patients (median age: 63.5 (56.3–70.6) years; 30.2% women) were...

Objective: Studies in rodents indicate a role of vitamin D in male reproduction but the relationship between vitamin D and androgen levels in men is largely unexplored. We aimed to investigate the association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels with testosterone, FAI (free androgen index), and SHBG. Moreover, we examined whether androgen levels show a similar seasonal variation to 25(OH)D.Design: In this cross-sectional study, 25(OH)D, testosterone, ...

Background: There is increasing evidence that aldosterone exerts deleterious, blood pressure independent effects on cerebral blood vessels. We aimed to evaluate whether high aldosterone levels are related to fatal stroke.Methods: Serum aldosterone concentrations (SAC, pg/ml) were measured in 3073 Caucasian patients, who were routinely referred to coronary angiography. We calculated Cox proportional hazard ratios for death due to fatal stroke according to...

Background: The myocardium is a target tissue for vitamin D, that was shown to exert several effects on cardiac contractility and calcium homeostasis. We aimed to elucidate whether insufficient vitamin D status is associated with heart failure and sudden cardiac death (SCD).Methods and Results: We measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in 3299 Caucasian patients that were all routinely referred to coronary angiography at baseline (1997–2000). 25(OH)...

Background: The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system (RAAS) is a major regulator of blood pressure, however, there are no studies available addressing its characterization in a large clinical setting. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to describe the relationship between parameters of the RAAS and actual blood pressure results in a large cohort of patients with and without essential hypertension.Methods: We investigated 3253 patients (ages 63.2...