Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), a neuroendocrine tumour derived from the parafollicular C-cells, often present with metastasized disease. Survival strongly correlates with stage of disease at diagnosis, illustrating the need for early diagnosis. Calcitonin (CT), a well-established tumour marker for MTC, is limited by a high rate of false positives in the screening phase. Promising new markers for MTC are procalcitonin (PCT) and progastrin releasin...

IntroductionAltered levels of hormonal appetite regulators have been observed in obesity (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2), most prominently increases of insulin and leptin (indicating resistance) as well as decreases of adiponectin–all of which are long-term energy regulators and adiposity signals. Disrupted signaling of these hormones may have detrimental effects on metabolism, but may also promote weight gain. Weight loss is often accompanied ...

Introduction: Historically, treatment of follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) and oncocytic thyroid carcinoma (OTC) is based on thyroidectomy followed by radioiodine (RAI) therapy. Both tumor types have a good prognosis (10-year survival 80-94%), but this changes significantly once RAI-refractory disease occurs (median 3.5 years), which limits further treatment possibilities. The main risk factors for developing RAI-refractory disease in FTC and OTC are unknown. Our aim was to i...

Background: Previous genetic and animal studies implied a potential association between thyroid hormone and osteoarthritis (OA), but this has not been confirmed in the general population. We aim to investigate whether thyroid function is associated with hand, hip or knee OA.Methods: We included 9,054 participants from Rotterdam Study with baseline measurement of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4) and radiographs. Joint radiographs we...

Background: Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is caused by overproduction of cortisol. Current first-line screening tests for CS can produce false positive results due to medication use and stress, rely heavily on patient adherence to sampling instructions, and only measure short-term cortisol exposure which limits sensitivity. In general multiple tests are required to establish a diagnosis. Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) offer a minimally invasive way to measure lon...

Background: Childhood obesity is an increasing health problem, affecting over 40 million children aged 0–5 years worldwide. It is associated with premature onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Pathologically elevated cortisol is known to induce obesity and cardio-metabolic complications, suggesting cortisol is implicated in the onset of obesity. Indeed, recent pilot-studies showed an increase in hair cortisol concentrations in obese adults and adoles...

Objective: The objective of this study was to asses the quality of self-management in patients with primary and secondary adrenal insufficiency and to find patient-related factors that influence quality of self-management.Methods: The quantitative research was assessed by a questionnaire. Mainly focused topics were i) demographic data ii) daily medication intake iii) en route precautions and iv) dose adaptation during medical emergencies. One hundred and...

Introduction: Elevated levels of cortisol are known to induce a wide range of pathology, e.g. abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Measuring serum and saliva cortisol is limited to one time point. Measurement of cortisol in scalp hair is a recently developed method to measure long term cortisol levels and might reflect cortisol exposure in patients with hyper- or hypo-cortisolism and in healthy persons. Our aims were to explore this measurement of cor...

Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is a rare genetic developmental disorder characterized by gonadal dysfunction, short stature and heart defects, among others. Women with TS often suffer from severe fatigue, for which they are typically referred to endocrinologists. The diagnostic work-up is generally time-consuming and invasive, but it rarely solves the problem. To prevent the personal and financial burden of unnecessary diagnostic procedures, it is crucial to understand fatig...

Background/Aim: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare tumors arising from neuroendocrine cells throughout the body. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning with 6-[18F]fluor-L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-FDOPA) has been shown to be a valuable technique for the imaging of NETs. While the sensitivity has been assessed numerously, studies systematically describing false positive results, other than physiological variants, are lacking. Our aim was to systematica...