Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Although overall accuracy of fine needle aspiration (FNA) in identifying thyroid cancer is considered excellent, 20–30% of aspirates do not allow definitive diagnosis of malignancy. Proto-oncogene somatic mutations such as BRAFV600E in FNA strongly suggest the presence of malignancy. However, only few studies reported the use of circulating BRAFV600E-mutated alleles in plasma as an useful marker for non invasive diagnosis and follow up of this disease.<p...

Background: The penis has been compared to a barometer of endothelial health, being erectile dysfunction (ED) an early sign of endothelial dysfunction. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between ED and endothelial dysfunction in patients with HIV infection on ART.Methods: In this observational cross-sectional study we evaluated the prevalence and factors associated with ED in a cohort of 133 HIV-infected men. Evaluation tools include...

Many studies demonstrated that somatic BRAF gene mutation analysis increases diagnostic accuracy for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), even from very small samples. The gold standard for point mutations research is direct sequencing, that implies DNA extraction, PCR with specific primers, sequencing reaction and run on an automatic sequencer. This is an expensive and time consuming method, and the possible contamination with wild-type DNA not coming from the nodule significan...

Prokineticin 1 (Prok1), the product of EGVEGF/PROK 1 gene, acts through two G-coupled receptors (PKR1 and PKR2) and is involved in a wide spectrum of actions, including tumorigenesis. Increased Prok1 expression has been found in prostate hyperplasia and cancer, suggesting a role in prostate cancer and BPH. Aim of this study was to elucidate the role of Prok1 on prostate cell function and growth. We evaluated the effects of Prok1 on epithelial prostate cell (PC) migration and p...

Polyclonal antibodies against somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) available up to now recognizing intracellular sites of receptors and their recycling products do not detect bioactive ligand binding domains (LBDs) and are of limited performance in paraffin-embedded tissues. Aim of this study was to evaluate by immunohistochemistry the expression of SSTR5 on an archival series of pituitary tumors using a new MoAbs against the SST-binding domain (Y-SSTR5).Metho...

Background: Liver metastases occur in about 40–85% of patients with neuroendocrine tumours (NET). NET usually run a rather indolent course but the 5-year survival is about 40% in patients with liver metastases versus 75–99% in subjects free of hepatic lesions. The most effective management and timing of treatment for patients with surgically unresectable metastases remains still unsettled.Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and clinic...

Fetal cells enter the maternal circulation during pregnancy and can persist in the maternal blood or tissues for decades, creating a physiological microchimerism. Since papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is more frequent in female gender and it is the second more frequent tumor during pregnancy, the role of persisting microchimeric cells has been investigated. Tumour tissue specimens were obtained from 62 women with PTC, 41 of whom had at least one male child before the diagnosis ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common motor neurone disorder in human adults, presents is characterized by selective and progressive degeneration of upper and lower motor neurones in central nervous system. GH secretion, evaluated by GHRH+arginine test, has been recently reported to be impaired in about 70% of untreated ALS patients. The currently available drug for ALS treatment is riluzole, a compound acting through inhibition of glutamate relase, post-synapti...

We are conducting an open study on the treatment of Graves’ disease (GD) and thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) with the monoclonal antibody to CD-20, rituximab (RTX) (MabThera, Hoffman-Roche, Basel). RTX induces depletion of B cells and GD is typically a B cell dependent autoimmune disease. We present preliminary results on 7 patients with GD and TAO at different clinical stages: 3 women with newly diagnosed GD and initial TAO; 1 woman with GD and moderate-severe TA...

Background: Endogenous and exogenous factors may cause biochemical interferences with thyroid function immunoassays. Interference can be caused by many mechanisms including heterophilic antibodies, drugs and rheumatoid factors. Moreover, assay-specific interference has been described, such as antithyroid hormone antibodies resulting in falsely elevated or lowered concentrations depending on the assay.Case Presentation: We describe a case of a 38-years ol...