Endocrine Abstracts

Adiponectin, a recently discovered protein which is secreted by the adipose tissue, exerts anti-inflammatory and anti atherogenic properties, but also promotes glucose uptake by skeletal muscle and fatty acids oxidation. Patients with hypertension and obesity have reduced plasma levels of adiponectin so that they lack its beneficial metabolic effects. However no data are available in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA). In order to investigate the role of the adiponectin ...

Aims or Objectives: We here describe a role for the kinase thousand and one kinase (TAOK) 3 as a modulator of insulin resistance. TAOK3 is one of three members of the TAOK family of kinases, which are classified within the Ste20-like kinases as mitogen activated protein kinase 4 kinases. TAOK3 was identified in a RNAi library screening in C. elegans as a target molecule that could revert an insulin resistance-like state induced by a daf-2 mutation (Devgen, Ghent). Mor...

Aim of the work: In patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, the basic goal of the therapy is to improve overall and disease-specific survival, reduce the risk of persistent/recurrent disease while minimizing treatment-related morbidity and unnecessary therapy. In 2015, the American Thyroid Association (ATA) published evidence-based guidelines for the staging and management of differentiated thyroid cancer, including the possibility of avoiding systematic complementary 131...

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is characterized by development of cardiovascular and metabolic complications. We retrospectively analyzed 78 patients with PA: 29 had aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), and 49 had idiopathic hyperaldosteronism (IHA). The study of complications was performed by examining the lipid and glucose profiles (OGTT, HOMA and Quicki indexes) and the echocardiographic parameters. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the aldosterone synthase (minus 344C/...

Hyponatraemia is a well-recognised neurosurgical complication, but the incidence and complications are unknown.Objective : We aimed to define the incidence, pathophysiology and effects of significant hyponatraemia following neurosurgical admissions.Methods: All neurosurgical patients with significant hyponatraemia (plasma sodium <130 millimol per litre) between January 2002 and September 2003 were identified from computerised la...

Corticosteroid therapy is associated with potentially serious side effects, but there is no information available regarding glucocorticoid requirements in adult hypopituitary patients with partial adreno-corticotrophin hormone (ACTH) deficiency.10 male adult hypopituitary patients with partial ACTH deficiency, baseline plasma cortisol > 200 nanomole/ litre but a peak stimulated cortisol < 550 nanomole/ litre, were randomised to a cross-over protoco...

Objective: The spontaneously hypertensive stroke prone rat (SHRSP) is a model of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Feeding a 60% fructose diet exaggerates these phenotypes. The Y chromosome may influence lipid levels in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Therefore we aim to characterise the metabolic syndrome using in vivo and dyslipidemic phenotpyes in the SHRSP and examine the contribution of the Y chromosome.Methods: SHRSP and WKY Y consomic strains (SP...

Erythropoietin (Epo) treatment has been shown to induce mitochondrial biogenesis in cardiac muscle along with enhanced mitochondrial capacity in mice. We hypothesized that recombinant human Epo (rhEpo) treatment enhances skeletal muscle mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity in humans. In six healthy volunteers rhEpo was administered by s.c. injection over eight weeks with oral iron (100 mg) supplementation taken daily. Mitochondrial OXPHOS was quantified by...

Aim: Endocrinopathies are frequent complications in paediatric patients with primary brain tumours (PBT) and among them GH deficiency (GHD) is of particular relevance. In this study we evaluated the incidence of GHD and the impact of GH therapy in a large series of PBT bearing patients or adult patients previously treated for PBT.Methods: From January 2001 to December 2011 more than 700 PBT patients were screened for endocrine complications. GHD was expl...

Somatostatin analogues (SSA) represent a recognized therapeutic option in patients affected with functioning neuroendocrine tumors (NET). In non-functioning NET, SSA are reported to induce tumor stabilization in most of cases and objective response in <5%. NET associated to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) are inherited tumors, generally located in the duodeno-pancreatic trait, characterized by well differentiated histotype, high expression of somatostatin recept...