Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) are widely used for the treatment of patients with neuroendocrine tumors. These drugs are able to influence glucose metabolism by an inhibitory effect of insulin secretion, but the clinical impact of this effect is uncertain. Most of the data on this topic have been obtained from studies including patients in acromegaly, one the major indication for SSA, which are limited in terms of numerosity and study duration. Therefore, we have carr...

Context: Acromegaly can be complicated by cardiomyopathy. Treatment with somatostatin analogs has been shown to improve some cardiac parameters, but most published clinical trials involved few patients and were not randomized or controlled. In addition, their results are rather variable.Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis aimed at obtaining a more accurate picture of the effect of somatostatin analogs on the heart in patients with acromegaly.<p cla...

Introduction: Osteoporosis and vertebral fractures (VFs) commonly occur in overt and subclinical primary hyperthyroidism. In this clinical setting, bone damage is caused by the direct effects of thyroid hormone in excess on bone remodeling, although there is also evidence that low thyrotropin (TSH) values may play a role in driving fracture risk. In fact, TSH was shown to have direct inhibitory effects on osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. Based on these data, one could a...

Background: Pituitary apoplexy (PA) is a rare endocrine and neurosurgical syndrome characterized by pituitary hemorrhage/infarction. SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination have been described as possible risk factors for PA, but the real impact of COVID-19 burden on PA epidemiology is still unknown.Purpose: To investigate the incidence of PA in the pandemic period during exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination and possible peculiar clinical charac...

Morphometric-Vertebral Fractures (VFs), which were widely demonstrated to reduce overall-survival and respiratory function in the general population, have been recently reported to be highly prevalent in COVID-19 patients. Emerging data show negative respiratory sequelae at long-term follow-up in COVID-19 survivors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the VFs influence on respiratory function of COVID-19 survivors. We included COVID-19 patients admitted at San Raffaele-Hospit...

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignancy of the thyroid gland. MTCs originate from thyroid-C cells and account for 2-4% of all thyroid neoplasms. Originating from thyroid-C cells, the main secretory product of MTCs is calcitonin, used as sensitive and specific MTC-biomarker. Calcitonin is a hormone known to participate in calcium-bone metabolism suppressing bone-resorption by inhibiting the activity of osteoclasts, and inhibiting the kidney reabsorption of calcium a...

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) ...

Acromegalic osteopathy is an emerging complication of chronic GH excess characterized by increase in bone turnover, deterioration in bone microarchitecture and high risk of vertebral fractures (VFs). Medical therapies may exert direct effects on peripheral targets leading to improvement of clinical outcomes regardless of biochemical control of acromegaly. In this longitudinal study, we compared the effects pegvisomant (PegV) and somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) on VF risk ...

Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) has become increasingly recognized as a cause of metabolic syndrome, characterized by altered body composition and adverse cardiovascular risk. The effects of other pituitary hormone deficiencies or their replacement therapies on the metabolic profile in this clinical setting are still largely unclear. In this study, we aimed to evaluating the effects of replacement therapies of central hypoadrenalism and hypothyroidism on body composition in a ...

Over the last years, there has been evidence that acromegaly may cause skeletal fragility with high risk of vertebral fractures. The diagnostic approach to this complication is still a matter of uncertainty, since DXA measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) does not provide reliable information on fracture risk in acromegaly. The cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) technique offers three-dimensional images for the radiographed area with the advantage to use non-dedicated eq...