Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Evaluation of steroid replacement therapy (SRT) in adrenal insufficiency (AI) is challenging for the lack of reliable parameters. Measurement of salivary cortisol and cortisone emerged as a non-invasive tool for AI management, however poorly investigated. Aim: To analyse the cortisol and cortisone circadian rhythm in normal controls (NC) and patients with primary AI (PAI) under different SRTs, and to identify useful biomarkers. <p class="...

Context: Autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS) has been associated with a higher prevalence of osteoporosis and fragility fractures in several studies. However, the data rely on heterogeneous studies and criteria for osteoporosis screening in this population are still debated.Objective: To assess the prevalence of fragility fractures and contributing factors in a large cohort of patients with adrenal incidentalomas.Methods: We review...

Background and aim: The relationship between sarcopenia and overt cortisol excess as in Cushing’s syndrome is well-known. However, only a few studies investigated the relationship between autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS) in adrenal incidentalomas and skeletal muscle mass. The aims of our study were to analyze the skeletal muscle mass in patients with adrenal incidentalomas and to investigate the correlations with hormonal data.Methods: We enrolle...

Background: Adrenal insufficiency patient (AIP) care is mostly based on symptoms or clinical signs of inadequate glucocorticoid replacement treatment (GRT). Salivary cortisol (F) and cortisone (E) recently emerged as new tools for AIP management, although poorly employed in clinical practice.Aim: To assess associations between salivary glucocorticoid measures and life quality, anxiety depressive symptoms, sleep quality in AIP.Metho...

Background: Chronic hypercortisolism exhibits irregular circadian rhythm and deranged protein metabolism. Altered amino acid(AA) and biogenic amine(BA) circulating levels were found in patients with hypercortisolism. However, there is limited information about the physiologic circadian fluctuation of AA and BA levels, and it is not known whether this is affected by states of hypercortisolism.Aim: To characterize levels and daily fluctuations of AA and BA...

Background: Active smoking has been associated with alterations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. A role in the pathogenesis of adrenal tumors has also been proposed previously. No data investigating the relationship between smoking and hormonal secretion of adrenal tumors are yet available.Aim: To investigate the association between smoking habit with morphology and hormonal pattern of adrenal tumors.Methods: We retrospe...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are classified into mild autonomous cortisol-secreting (MACS) and non-secreting (NS) based on the 1mg-dexamethasone suppression test (DST). However, the latter test fails to detect alterations in the cortisol rhythm, which might be present in both MACS and NS.Aim: To characterize the cortisol secretion in terms of daily rhythm and exposure in healthy controls (HC) and patients with AI.Methods...

Background: Adrenal endothelial tumors are mainly represented by adrenal cavernous hemangiomas (ACHs) and adrenal cystic lymphangiomas (ACLs). They are rare incidental findings, with about 160 cases of both ACHs and ACLS reported in the literature. They are usually unilateral, benign, non-functioning, and asymptomatic, although abdominal pain and life-threatening retroperitoneal hemorrhage may occur if tumor size increases. Radiological features often overlap with malignant ad...

Background: Chronic hypercortisolism is known to alter the circadian rhythm and to impair protein metabolism. Altered amino acid (AA) and biogenic amine (BA) levels were found in basal blood in patients with hypercortisolism. However, poor information is available on the physiologic circadian fluctuation of these molecules. Furthermore, the potential derangement caused by hypercortisolism was never investigated.Aim: To characterize diurnal levels and flu...

Background: Radiomics, or texture analysis, is gaining growing interest for its high prediction performances, mainly for clinical purposes. Radiomics application for pheochromocytoma immunohistochemistry (IHC) and molecular biology prediction is still unexplored.Aim: To evaluate radiomics ability to predict pheochromocytoma IHC.Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 38 pheochromocytoma who underwent surgery at Sant’Orsola-Malpig...