Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hypothalamic-pituitary function and adipose tissue are deeply interconnected. Obesity has been linked to morpho-functional changes in several endocrine glands (thyroid, adrenal, gonads). No study has quantified the appearance of the pituitary gland in obese subjects.Aim: To measure pituitary signal intensity, homogeneity and texture of the pituitary gland at magnetic resonance (MR) in obese subjects free of focal pituitary disease.<p clas...

Adrenal insufficiency (AI) requires life-long glucocorticoid (GC) treatment, which is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), probably due to cortisol overexposure for multiple drug daily doses, together with an impairment of quality of life (QoL). Moreover treatment compliance (TC) is reported to be suboptimal in AI patients. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of the switch from twice/thrice daily conventional GCs to once daily dual-rele...

Introduction: Although possible autonomous cortisol secretion (pACS) is the commonest endocrine dysfunction detected in patients with adrenal incidentalomas, the diagnosis of this condition is still challenging. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) is an adrenal androgen secreted by adrenal glands under the regulation of ACTH. DHEAS does not follow a circadian rhythm and has a long half-life in serum. Because of these features, low blood concentration of DHEAS has been recen...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency requires life-long glucocorticoid replacement. Conventional therapies fail to mimic endogenous cortisol circadian rhythm. Clock genes are essential components of the molecular machinery controlling organ’s circadian function and are influenced by glucocorticoids. However, clock genes expression has never been investigated in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI).Aim: To evaluate the effect of the timing of gluc...