Endocrine Abstracts

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is the ‘master clock’ of the mammalian brain. It coordinates the peripheral clock in body, including the pineal clock that receives SCN input via a multisynaptic noradrenergic pathway. Melatonin is exclusively involved in signaling the ‘time of day’, ‘time of year’ to all tissues and is thus considered to be the chronological pacemaker or ‘zeitgeber’.Objective: To determine the chr...

BackgroundFluid balance in patients with diabetes insipidus and COVID-19 is very fragile. The prevalence of hyponatraemia in patients with pneumonia due to COVID-19 seems to be low, but in patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) is high (up to 20.5%). In contrast, hypernatraemia may also develop in COVID-19 patients in ICU (up to 3.7% of cases), due to insensible water losses from pyrexia, increased respiration rate and use of diuretics. Both hyp...

Introduction: Carney complex is a rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder which develops secondary to mutation in the PRKAR1A gene located in the 17q22-24 region. It is commonly characterised by the association between spotty skin pigmentation, cardiac myxoma and secretory endocrine tumors.Case presentation: A 15.8-year-old boy known with PRKAR1A mutation diagnosed based on his personal history – cutaneous papiloma of the neck resected at the age o...

Background: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) encompases a wide spectrum of disease from clinically insignificant micro-tumors to aggressive cancers. The molecular signature can be used to predict tumor behaviour, and the co-existence of BRAF and TERT promoter mutations has been identified as a marker of adverse prognosis, but we have yet no available molecular data for the Romanian population.Objectives: To determine the prevalence of BRAF V600E and T...

Introduction: BRAF V600E mutation is reported to occur in 28–83% of papillary thyroid cancer, being associated with increased tumour aggressiveness.Objective: To determine the prevalence of BRAF V600E mutation in Romanian patients with thyroid nodules referred to surgery in a reference endocrinology centre.Materials and methods: 140 patients were included in the study: 70 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), 42 pat...

Background: Low-serum concentrations of 25(OH)-vitamin D are associated with insulin resistance in adults. Recent in vitro studies have suggested that vitamin D may play a role in the regulation of adiponectin, leptin and resistin; since all these adipokines are related to insulin sensitivity modulation, they might represent a link between vitamin D status and insulin resistance.Aim: To identify possible correlations between 25(OH)-vitamin D ser...

Background: ER-α gene (ESR1) polymorphisms have been associated with a variety of disorders including human infertility. In this study, we examined two polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor α (ESR1) gene, IVS-1 −397 T/C (dbSNP: rs2234693) and IVS-1 −351 A/G (dbSNP: rs9340799) in a sample of healthy women of reproductive age to determine whether are associated with hormonal levels for a better understanding of its biological actions in human development, ...

Background: Androgen receptor (AR) activity is modulated by the length of CAG-repeat polymorphism in exon 1. Published data suggest association between CAG-repeat alleles and PCOS, but not all studies confirmed this finding.Aim: To test association of AR alleles with PCOS and clinical and biochemical signs of hyperandrogenism.Study design: Case–control association study, approved by the institutional ethical committee, of 137 ...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (IS) represents an evolutive disease that occurs in puberty and progresses till the skeletal maturation. The neuroendocrine hypothesis involving a melatonin deficiency as the source for IS is one of the proposed causes of this plurifactorial disease.Objective: To investigate the hormonal changes of both the gonadal and growth axis and circadian rhythmicity in subjects with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis compared to age ma...

Studies evaluated bone involvement in the metabolic control of fat cells. It has been reported that osteocalcin acts as a hormone in the body, causing beta cells in the pancreas to release more insulin, and at the same time directing fat cells to release adiponectin, which increases sensitivity to insulin.The aim: Of the study was to evaluate osteocalcin levels in subjects with metabolic syndrome compared with age and sex matched control groups.<p cl...