Endocrine Abstracts

Cushing’s disease is relatively rare and affects most commonly adults aged 20 to 40. It is associated with high morbidity and mortality; early detection and diagnosis of Cushing’s disease may lead to decreased this two facts and improved quality of life.We present a 32-year-old man with abdominal purple striae, central obesity with typical ‘moon face’ and oscillatory blood pressure values.Hormonal exams revealed...

IntroductionThe main role of vitamin D is regulating bone metabolism, but over the past years, the importance of vitamin D in non-skeletal actions has been studied. Vitamin D deficiency is very common in our environment. This deficit has been associated with higher risk of many chronic diseases, such as osteoporosis, hypertension, diabetes and even obesity. Recent evidence has demonstrated an association between low vitamin D status and autoimmune thyroi...

Glucocorticoids have potent effects on almost every tissue in the body and this is exemplified in patients with Cushing’s disease. Whilst Cushing’s disease is rare, glucocorticoids are commonly prescribed for their anti-inflammatory actions, but their use is associated with a series of undesirable adverse effects, including obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, myopathy and osteoporosis. Within tissues, glucocorticoids (both endogenous and exogenous) are metabol...

Adrenal crisis is a life-threatening emergency requiring immediate treatment with high glucocorticoid doses. In diagnosed Addison’s disease between 3.8% and 29% of patients are estimated to need emergency hospital treatment per annum (Arlt & Allolio, 2003; Fleming & Ostergaard Kristensen, 1999).In 2003 we conducted the largest international survey of diagnosed Addison’s patients to date (N=868), enquiring about the causes and fre...

A number of psychiatric conditions are associated with Cushing’s disease. Acute psychosis is rare. We describe a patient with sudden onset of florid psychosis who required medical and surgical treatment.Case: A 38 year old woman previously well and employed in the financial sector was admitted to the acute psychiatric unit with delusional, disorganised and paranoid ideation. Despite management with olanzapine, haloperidol and benzodiazepines her men...

Introduction: Paediatric Cushing’s disease is rare and up to 50% have incomplete cure.1 Besides hypopituitarism growth failure is particularly common and maybe due to GH deficiency, target tissue resistance2 or accelerated skeletal maturation 3. Our patient is an 18-year-old obese male who first presented at the age of 16 with delayed puberty and short stature.Results: His 24 hr urinary cortisol was 1472 nmol/l, ACTH...

Craniofacial proportions of girls with TS, compared to normal children, show reduced size of the craniofacial complex, retrognathic profile and tendency towards advanced dental age. Growth hormone (GH) treatment in TS positively affects stature, but its effects on craniofacial growth and dental development are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze and to correlate the craniofacial morphology, chronological, dental and bone ages of TS patients receiving GH or no...

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between basal dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) levels and other tests used in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of Cushing’s Syndrome (CS) among the patients with pathologically confirmed CS.Methods: In this multicenter study, the data of 623 patients with CS were evaluated retrospectively. The patients were classified as Group 1 (n = 353 Cushing’s disease;CD), Group 2 (n</e...

A 31-year-old man without previous medical history presented to his local hospital with one week history of generalised severe headache. Brain CT was reported as negative for acute intracranial pathology. Five weeks later, he re-presented with worsening headache and blurring of vision. Brain CT revealed a large area of hypodensity centred on the left thalamus/basal ganglia and subsequent MRI with contrast showed a medium size pituitary cyst with suprasellar extension and two c...

Introduction: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is accompanied by a ten times increased risk of venous thromboembolism and arterial thrombosis. In this study we aimed to analyze frequency of thromboembolism in CS.Methods: We prospectively followed 62 patients who had been diagnosed with CS between 2010 and 2014 in our clinic. Of the patients, 60% had Cushing’s disease (CD) (29 females and eight males) and 40% had ACTH-independent CS (20 females and five ...