Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder among premenopausal women affecting up to 20% of the population. Even though androgen excess is the main diagnostic criterion for PCOS, the evaluation of hyperandrogenemia relies on methods with low accuracy and mainly able to measure total androgen amounts. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) allows high accuracy steroids measurement and if applied to saliva, it also allows the measurem...

Background: Steroid profiling by LC-MS/MS is increasingly used in endocrine research, and is being introduced in the clinical practice. Due to the large disagreement with previous immunoassays, and to the enlarged panel of measurable steroids, novel and robust reference intervals (RIs) need to be established. Steroid circulating levels are known to be influenced by several physio-pathological factors, such as age, gender, stress and metabolic status. Therefore, generating unbi...

Endocrine clinical practice strongly relies on normative data for the assessment of hormonal imbalance. However, the generation of robust steroids reference intervals (RIs) remains a challenge. As the steroids circulating levels are influenced by many procedural aspects related to blood collection (time, fasting state) and physio-pathological factors, such as age, sex, stress and metabolic status, the need for partitioning RIs is mandatory. Furthermore, unbiased healthy, drug-...

Steroid testing has a central role in clinical decision-making and in research studies on diseases such as hypercortisolisms, female hyperandrogenism, male hypogonadism or inborn disorders of steroid synthesis. Recently, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) proved its superiority to routine immunoassays (IA) in accurately and sensitively measuring low level steroids. However, the replacement of automated IA with LC–MS/MS platforms is limited...

The hormone assessment in saliva is emerging as a new valuable tool for clinical and research purposes. Salivary levels are supposed to reflect the free fraction of circulating steroids, thus representing a more informative indicator of their activity. Moreover, saliva collection is not stressful and does not require medical assistance, allowing reliable and multiple sampling in a day. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) technology offers high s...

Obesity is characterized by hyperactivated endocannabinoid System (ECS) in brain and periphery and by increased levels of circulating endocannabinoids (cECs), anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2AG). It is still debated whether in absence of obesity cECs are only modulated by adiposity or if they are associated with cardiometabolic parameters.We recruited 155 healthy normal weight (NW, BMI: 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) drug-free volunteers ...

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-NCAH) in hyperandrogenic women in the reproductive age attending our Endocrinology Unit and to identify specific phenotypic traits among clinical, biochemical and hormonal features.Setting: Outpatient Unit of Endocrinology, S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital of Bologna, Italy.Patients a...

Background: The classical steroidogenic route to the synthesis of dihydrotestosterone in Leydig cells involves delta-5 and delta-4 precursors. Besides, the “backdoor pathway”, encompassing progesterone metabolites, is gaining increasing interest in fetal development and men pathophysiology. Nowadays, liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is the ideal technique to simultaneously quantify large panels of steroids with elevated sensitivity and specif...

Background: Excess testosterone in PCOS is accompanied by increased levels of other ovarian and adrenal androgens and precursors. Recently, 11-oxygenated adrenal androgens have been postulated as major components of the circulating androgen pool in PCOS. Obesity is strictly connected with androgen excess and with the derangement of hormone circadian rhythmicity. To date, it has not been clarified whether hyperandrogenism in PCOS, either complicated by obesity or not, is accomp...

Background: HIV is associated with decreased bone mineral density (BMD) and decreased muscle mass. Osteoporosis and sarcopenia often co-exist and their onset is multifactorial. Sex steroids play a key role in the homeostasis of bone health and body composition in HIV-uninfected men, but data in MLWH are scanty.Aim: To investigate the frequency of low BMD and sarcopenia and their relationship with gonadal function in MLWH younger than 50.<p class="abs...