Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: There are high levels of anterior pituitary hormones in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), i.e. beyond the blood–brain barrier, in many patients with pituitary tumors.Aim: To assess the influence of CSF pituitary hormones on brain functions reflected by sleep architecture and sleep apnea.Method: Twenty-nine patients (17 women, 12 men) with pituitary adenomas (20 acromegaly, 5 nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas, 4 prol...

Cabergoline (CAB) is a selective dopamine D2-receptor agonist with long-lasting action, highly effective in treating micro- and macroprolactinoma. However, the clinical response to cabergoline can be seen only after several months of treatment, allowing the tumor shrinkage and decrease of prolactin. Despite most prolactinomas are responsive to CAB, there are up to 8% of cases in which tumor responsivity is limited. In order to asses the sensitivity to Cab, we aimed to develop ...

Primary therapy in prolactinomas, the most frequent pituitary adenomas, consists in ergot derivatives dopamine agonists (bromocriptine or cabergoline) which lowers prolactin levels and shrink the tumour. Bromocriptine was the first drug used, but the therapeutic levels are attained after several days/weeks, therefore an acute suppression test is not possible. However, the biological response is variable and 10% of prolactinomas are resistant to medical therapy. In order to eva...

Background: Primary aldosteronism is associated with increased vascular mortality and morbidity.Aims: We aimed to assess metabolic and hormonal profile differences in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) compared with patients with essential hypertension (EH).Patients and methods: Thirty-one patients (11 M/20 F) with primary aldosteronism, aged 46.2±12.9 years and 64 patients (24 M/40 F) with essential hypertension, aged 4...

BackgroundCushing syndrome (CS) is caused by prolonged exposure to elevated cortisol levels and it’s classified as either ACTH-dependent or ACTH independent CS. The most common form of endogenous ACTH CS is Cushing disease (CD); ACTH-independent CS is caused by various adrenal abnormalities. First-line therapy in CS is the resection of the underlying tumor in all cases. After surgical cure of CS, most patients develop transient secondary adrenal ins...

Background: Cushing’s syndrome is represented by the cummulation of signs and symptoms of excess glucocorticoids and has many potential causes. Approximately 20 percent of all cases are represented by ACTH-independent adrenal tumors – with a majority of these being represented by cortisol secreting adrenal adenomas. Generally, a large adrenal tumor has over 5 cm in diameter and the risk of it being malignant raises proportionately with the dimensions. Large adrenal t...

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: Dopamine agonists (DA) have excellent result in controlling both hyperprolactinemia and tumor volume in macroprolactinomas. However, even after long term DA treatment, withdrawal of dopamine agonists results in recurrence of hyperprolactinemia in a significant proportion of patients.Aim: To assess recurrence rate of hyperprolactinemia after DA withdrawal in a large series of patients treated in a tertiar...

Background: Dopamine agonists (DA) have excellent result in controlling both hyperprolactinemia and tumor volume in macroprolactinomas. However, even after long term DA treatment, withdrawal of dopamine agonists results in recurrence of hyperprolactinemia in a significant proportion of patients.Aim: To assess recurrence rate of hyperprolactinemia after DA withdrawal in a large series of patients treated in a tertiar...

Introduction: Acromegalic bone disease is characterized by an increased prevalence of fragility vertebral fractures (VFs). However, an effective, non-invasive and cost-efficient imaging technique that can diagnose early bone alterations in this category of patients is yet to found. The use of bone mineral density (BMD) is not as useful as in other causes of osteoporosis as excess GH leads to specific microarchitectural alteration of trabecular bone, which don’t translate ...