Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The silencing mechanisms of corticotroph tumors (CT) remain unclear. The most feasible hypothesis lies in a post-transcriptional deregulation of the POMC gene, precursor of ACTH. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression through their inhibitory action on messenger RNA. miRNAs capable of inhibiting the expression of POMC have been described at the level of neurons of the hypot...

Introduction: Silent somatotroph tumors (sST) are a pituitary neuroendocrine tumor subtype with positive immunostaining for growth hormone (GH) but without the presence of acromegaly. Unlike silent corticotroph tumors, there is little information in the literature on sST. The aim of the present study was to study the demographic, clinical and molecular characteristics in a series of ST in order to compare sST and functioning ST (fST).Methods: We have stu...

Purpose: To evaluate whether the degree of response to surgical pre-treatment with somatostatin receptor ligands (SRL) predicts alterations in blood glucose levels.Patients and methods: We retrospectively studied 181 patients attending the Unit of Neurosurgery of our Hospital prior to transsphenoidal surgery. All patients had a diagnosis of acromegaly (nadir GH during OGTT >0.4 ng/ml; and IGF-I above age-standardized UNL); diagnosis of diabetes (DM) ...

Background: Type 2 DM and chronic renal disease CKD are conditions associated with severe hypertension, loss of the blood pressure circadian rhythm (CR) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) hyperactivity, suggesting a deficient dopaminergic modulation that could be reversed with dopamine agonists such as bromocriptine (BEC).Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of bromocriptine in the blood pressure CR in patients with type 2 ...

Introduction: Thyroid fluid-filled cavities are mostly resulted from degenerating thyroid adenomas but blood vessel anomalies are also described. Despite the typical benign behavior the local anatomical effects may require fine needle aspiration or directly surgery.Materials and methods: This is series of cases presenting intermittent breathing problems leading to the diagnosis of thyroid cysts. Thyroid evaluation included ultrasound, computed tomography...

Introduction: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that has been linked to several cardiovascular risk factors and bone status. Stress and corticosteroid exposure can affect BDNF levels, although this has never been studied in Cushing’s syndrome (CS). The aims of this study were to establish if BDNF levels were reduced in CS and to check possible associations to cardiovascular risk factors and bone status.Methods: 52 patients (18 ac...

Introduction: Intraoperative identification of neck lesions in patients who have undergone previous neck surgery is particularly difficult, because of operative scarring and distorted anatomy. Radioguided occult lesion localisation (ROLL) involves the preoperative intratumoral ultrasound-guided injection of a radioactive tracer. In the present study, we investigated the efficacy of roll in two patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) who underwent previous neck exploration...

Introduction: Recent studies showed that morphometric vertebral fractures (VF) are an early and frequent complication in patients (pts) withhyperfunctioning pituitary adenomas and hypopituitarism (independently from the etiology). GH excess or severe deficiency play a negative key role on bone health in this clinical setting. Disease control or adequate replacement therapies still remain a cornerstone for the clinician to reduce the burden of osteo-metabolic complications. To ...

Thyroid hormone resistance (THR) is a rare dominantly inherited syndrome characterized by a reduced response of target tissues to thyroid hormone receptor. In most cases, THR is related to mutations in the thyroid hormone receptor beta gene (THRb). Management may be challenging in cases of gestation. Here we report the case of a pregnant patient with a possible not previously described mutation and negative genotype fetus.Case report: Thirty-two year old...

Metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance persist 5 years after remission of Cushing’s syndrome (CS). Adiponectin and visfatin are two adipokines highly expressed in adipose tissue. Adiponectin is reduced in obesity and insulin-resistant states; visfatin has been shown in some studies to be reduced in obesity. The aim was to evaluate visfatin and adiponectin levels, body composition, insulin resistance and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in a cohort of women with long-te...