Endocrine Abstracts

Background: High oxidative stress is associated with increased morbidity. The effect of testosterone treatment (TT) on oxidative stress in ageing men with reduced bioavailable testosterone is undetermined.Aim: To determine the effect of TT compared to placebo on oxidative stress biomarkers.Methods: Double-blinded, placebo-controlled study in 38 men, aged 60–78 years, with bioavailable testosterone <7.3 nmol/l and waist cir...

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure for physical activity and a prognostic health indicator. However, measurement of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) is not possible in clinical practice.Aim: We hypothesized that body composition and testosterone levels could be used as possible determinants of VO2max in young men.Participants and design: The Odense Androgen Study, a population-based, observational study including...

Background: Glucocorticoid (GC) formulations are widely used as anti-inflammatory treatment, and synthetic GC, e.g. prednisolone, is the cornerstone treatment of polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA). Long-term pharmacological GC treatment may induce adrenal insufficiency (GIA). Adrenal function is, however, not routinely assessed after discontinuation of long-term GC treatment, and it is unknown, if hydrocortisone replacement is beneficial. This study aim...

Objectives: The clinical impact of glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency in patients on low-dose prednisolone is unclear. We investigated the influence of adrenal function on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients tapering prednisolone.Method: Baseline data from an ongoing prospective randomised clinical trial including 278 patients with polymyalgia rheumatica/giant cell arteritis treated with prednisolone for ≥12 weeks, current ...

Background: Pharmacological glucocorticoid (GC) treatment exerts adverse effects on musculoskeletal health and may induce glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency (GIA), but these features have so far not been characterized in a prospective and unbiased manner.Aim: To characterize a population, who recently discontinued long-term (>12 weeks) prednisolone treatment with particular emphasis on the presence or absence of symptoms.<p class="abste...

Background and aim: Identifying patients with glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency poses a challenge. We investigated whether factors associated with exogenous hypercortisolism (as a proxy of overall elevated glucocorticoid exposure) could predict the risk of glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and/or giant cell arteritis during long-term low-dose prednisolone treatment.Material and methods: Baseli...

Background: Long-term prednisolone therapy may lead to subtle changes in circadian oscillations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which can affect quality of life of the patient. Low score of the Addison’s disease-specific quality-of-life questionnaire (AddiQoL-30) could be a method to assess functional glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency.Objective: To compare scores from AddiQoL-30 with generic Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire in...

Introduction: Pharmacological glucocorticoid (GC) treatment may cause iatrogenic adrenal insufficiency (GIA), although the prevalence and clinical implications are debated. With 3% of the Danish population redeeming prescriptions of systemic GC annually, the number of patients at risk is potentially extensive. Taken together, there is an unmet need for a prospective and unbiased assessment of the GIA prevalence.Materials and Methods: The data for this re...