Endocrine Abstracts

Glucocorticoids play a significant role in immune modulation and regulation of inflammation. In patients with endogenous glucocorticoid excess (Cushing’s syndrome [CS]) multiple haematological alterations are recognized, such as neutrophil leukocytosis, lymphopenia, and eosinopenia, often leading to severe clinical complications. However, little is known in patients with mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS). Serum inflammation-based scores may reliably reflect system...

Background: PET/CT scan with 18F-fluoro-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F–DOPA) is an emerging useful tool in medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) patients with high calcitonin (CTN) values. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential usefulness of 18F-DOPA-PET/CT in MTC patients with biochemical incomplete response (BiR) (detectable CTN values and negative/indeterminate findings at CT scan with i.v. contrast).Materials a...

Background: Primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) can be of autoimmune origin (Addison’s disease, AD) or due to inborn disorders of steroidogenesis (congenital adrenal hyperplasia, CAH). Prognosis of patients with PAI has improved considerably after glucocorticoid replacement therapy became available. However, even in recent years, an increased risk of death has been described in both AD and CAH patients. Moreover, even with the current state-of-the-art replacement therapy,...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas are mostly non-functioning adrenal tumours (NFAT) or adenomas with mild autonomous cortisol excess (MACE), of which the natural history is unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis focussing on NFAT and MACE to determine the: (i) proportion and degree of tumour growth, (ii) incident change in hormone function, and (iii) proportion of malignant transformation.Methods: We searched MEDLINE In-Process &#38...

Introduction: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is the most frequent endocrine cancer. After surgery followed, if any, by 131I radio remnant ablation (RRA), follow-up monitoring consists of neck ultrasonography (US) and measurements of thyroglobulin (Tg) levels and anti-Tg antibodies (Ac-Tg) both on levothyroxine (L-T4) therapy and after recombinant TSH (rTSH). The aim of our study is to define a cut-off of Tg before RRA (RRA-Tg) during <...

Introduction: Bone metabolism is impaired in several lipid storage diseases. At now no data are available in Fabry disease (FD), a genetic lipid storage disease characterized by systemic accumulation of glicolipids. The aim of this study was to evaluate bone metabolism and calcium/vitamin-D pathway in patients with FD.Methods/design: Study population included 15 FD patients (8 M and 7 F, age 28–59 years) and 15 sex-, age- and BMI-matched normal subj...

Octreoscan is currently the gold standard for diagnosis of somatostatin receptor positive NET but it is limited by a lower spatial resolution and physiological uptake noises. DOTATATE is a somatostatin analogue, radiolabelled with 68Ga and adapted for PET imaging.Aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of 68Ga-DOTATATE PET compared to Octreoscan in NET.Fifty-one patients with NET (40 sporadic, 17 MEN1) of diffe...

Differentiated thyroid cancers (DTC) have an excellent prognosis with a 10 year disease-related survival of 85%. However, about 5% of DTC patients develop an aggressive disease with distant metastasis and loss of radioactive iodine (RAI) avidity. An effective treatment is not available for these patients and survival rates are less than 15%. The MAP-kinase pathway is strikingly involved in the pathogenesis of DTC. This is why compounds striking the MAP-Kinase pathway may be us...

Somatostatin analogues (SSA) represent a recognized therapeutic option in patients affected with functioning neuroendocrine tumors (NET). In non-functioning NET, SSA are reported to induce tumor stabilization in most of cases and objective response in <5%. NET associated to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) are inherited tumors, generally located in the duodeno-pancreatic trait, characterized by well differentiated histotype, high expression of somatostatin recept...

Background: Patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) carry an increased risk of infections which can precipitate adrenal crises. They are thought to be more likely to contract COVID-19 and develop severe disease; however, little is known about the true impact of COVID-19 on these patients.Objectives: To assess the response of a large single-centre cohort of PAI patients to COVID-19, focusing on morbidity and health promotion attitudes.<p cla...