Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) are approved for the treatment of several cancers and can induce hypothyroidism by unclarified mechanisms.Objectives: To assess the prevalence of hypothyroidism in patients treated with TKIs.Methods: Retrospective review of clinical records of patients treated with TKIs in our institution between 2003 and 2009. We evaluated parameters such as sex, oncologic pathology, TKI used, TSH an...

Introduction: Procalcitonin (PCT) is currently used as a sepsis marker. Studies have shown that this prohormone is elevated in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and, additionally, that its assay could have less limitation than calcitonin (CT).Objective: To evaluate the concordance between the values of CT and PCT.Methods: CT, PCT and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were measured in a total of 57 subjects. CEA and CT we...

Malignant insulinoma is an extremely uncommon tumor (5–10% of insulinomas). It is accompanied by severe hypoglycemia and a short life expectancy (survival at 10 years <10%). Its clinical management is complex and constitutes a real therapeutic challenge. So far, the experience of radionuclide treatment in these tumors is scarce. We report the case of a 51-year-old woman diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) in January 2013. Pre-surgical imaging study b...

Introduction: The surgical approach is the first line treatment for patients with an indeterminate nodule, both without and with nuclear atypia (TIR3A and TIR3B, respectively, as defined by Italian Consensus for thyroid cytology). However, there are no prospective studies about the feasibility of active surveillance in patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules.Methods: Eighty-six consecutive patients who decided to undergo active surveillance for at le...

Introduction: McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a rare, Mosaic genetic (Lethal in the homozygous state) but non-hereditary disorder. The diagnosis is most often made in childhood, the management is multidisciplinary and includes several aspects. We report a case of Mc Cune Albright syndrome and the various difficulties encountered in its management.Case report: A, H 22 years old, at the age of 6 months presented skin macules. At the age of 3 years he dev...

Introduction: Treatment using radioactive iodine (RAI) is used in several thyroid diseases, including differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). The most frequent adverse effects include acute gastrointestinal symptoms, sialadenitis, xerostomia, cervical pain, and cervical swelling. Chronic symptoms such as obstruction of the salivary ducts, pulmonary fibrosis or other primary malignant diseases are also described. A single case of change in tongue pigmentation / lingua villosa n...

Aim: Radioiodine activities for the treatment of Graves’ disease hyperthyroidism are still subject to discussion, as is the use of a fixed approach over a dosimetric one. We aimed to evaluate our success rate using a personalized dosimetric approach: instead of the “(MBq I-131×g gland mass×100)/(percentage uptake at 24 h)” activity calculation, we further adjusted for factors such as gender, age, diagnosis, 2 h and 4 h radioiodine uptake, previous medi...

Introduction: Bisphosphonates, generally considered as safe drugs, are potent inhibitors of bone calcium outflow used to treat osteoporosis and hypercalcemia associated with malignancy. Bisphosphonate-induced hypocalcaemia is an increasingly reported complication, but it has not yet been a subject of comprehensive research.Case report: A 65-year-old woman had a history of Crohn’s disease and ankylosing spondylitis medicated with prednisolone and eta...

Tumor heterogeneity affects diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy. Heterogeneity is found in both normal and neoplastic human mammary gland. For example, luminal estrogen receptor (ER)-negative cells can give rise to various phenotypes, including ER-negative and ER-positive mammary tumors, suggesting that the cell-of-origin does not necessarily reflect the tumor type. Regarding ER status, heterogeneity can challenge endocrine therapies; elimination of responsive clones ...

Introduction: Vitamin D, known mainly as a calcium-phosphorus homeostasis regulator, turned out to play also a significant role in the immune system modulation. Vitamin D deficiency has been reported in some autoimmune disorders. It is also suspected that polymorphisms of vitamin D-related genes comprise a risk factor for different autoimmune diseases. Therefore the aim of our study was to assess vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene FokI polymorphism in thyroid associated orbitopathy...