Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The widespread use of neuroimaging leads to the increased detection of asymptomatic pituitary adenomasnot causing significant mass effect. Their optimal management remains unclear.Aim of the study: To explore the natural course of incidentally found nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas.Patients and Methods: This was a longitudinal study that enrolled patients with clinically nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas wh...

Background: Radiotherapy (conventional and/or radiosurgery) is an effective treatment option in patients with acromegaly when biochemical control of the disease cannot be achieved by medication and/or surgery. Purpose: The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of gamma-knife radiosurgery or conventional radiotherapy in the treatment of GH-secreting pituitary adenomas.Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 22 acromegaly pa...

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of histological markers Ki-67, p53 and mitotic activity in pituitary adenomas and their correlation with the frequency of recurrence and progression of residual adenoma. The study comprised 94 patients treated at the Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital Center Zagreb in the period from 2005 to 2011. After the operation, 63.8% of patients had residual adenoma. In the minority of patients (12/60 patients, 20%) w...

Background: Genetic alterations underlying the pathogenesis of autonomous cortisol secretion and early adrenocortical tumorigenesis have been identified in 40% of adrenocortical tumors (ACT). Nonetheless, the molecular events leading to development of ACT and steroid secretion remain obscure for a large proportion of patients.Aim: Aims of our study were to investigate the relationship between transcriptome profile and genetic background in a large series...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC)is a rare disease with an unfavourable prognosis. Complete surgical resection of the tumour provides the only chance for long-term cure. The aim of this study was to compare long term outcomes in patients with ACC referred to surgery in an expert adrenal centre (EC) versus nonspecialised centres (NSC).Materials and methods: This retrospective study included 48 patients with ACC, ENSAT stage I-III. All of study ...

Background: Adrenal masses are discovered in 5% of abdominal imaging scans. Accuracy of currently available imaging tests to diagnose malignancy is poor. In a proof-of-concept study (JCE&M 2011;96(12):3775-84), we had demonstrated 90% sensitivity and specificity in detecting adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) for urine steroid metabolomics, the combination of mass spectrometry-based steroid profiling and machine learning-based data analysis. This diagnostic performance is supe...

Background: The advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and bioinformatic analysis have shed light on genetic alterations, either of germline or somatic origin, in many disorders, including adrenocortical diseases. However, our knowledge on genomic characteristics in benign adrenal tumors of serendipitous discovery (adrenal incidentalomas) remain scarce.The aim of this study was to understand the pathogenic role of germline variants in adrenal incidentalomas....

Background: A recent cross-sectional study showed that both comorbidities and mortality in patients with adrenal incidentaloma (AI) are tied to sex. However, only few longitudinal studies evaluating the development of arterial hypertension, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and bone impairment in patients with AI are available. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of sex in the development of these comorbidities during long-term follow-up.Patients an...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are found in approximately 5% of the adult population. Most AIs are benign; however, small-scale studies have indicated that 20–50% of patients harbouring a benign AI show biochemical evidence of mild autonomous cortisol excess (MACE), previously termed subclinical Cushing’s syndrome. MACE is differentiated into MACE-1 (serum cortisol after overnight suppression with 1 mg dexamethasone (1 mg-DST) 50–140 nmol/l) and MACE-2 ...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are found in approximately 5% of the adult population. Most AIs are benign; however, small-scale studies have indicated that 20–50% of patients harbouring a benign AI show biochemical evidence of mild autonomous cortisol excess (MACE), previously termed subclinical Cushing’s syndrome. MACE is differentiated into MACE-1 (serum cortisol after overnight suppression with 1 mg dexamethasone (1 mg-DST) 50–140 nmol/l) and MACE-2 ...