Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) carry an increased risk of infections which can precipitate adrenal crises. They are thought to be more likely to contract COVID-19 and develop severe disease; however, little is known about the true impact of COVID-19 on these patients.Objectives: To assess the response of a large single-centre cohort of PAI patients to COVID-19, focusing on morbidity and health promotion attitudes.<p cla...

Objectives: PET/CT scan with 18F-fluoro-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-DOPA) is an emerging useful tool in medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) patients. The question whether 18F-DOPA-PET/CT could be useful in MTC patients with biochemical incomplete response (BiR) is to clarify.Methods: Fifty-three MTC patients with BiR performed 18F-DOPA-PET/CT scan between May 2021 and December 2022 after having performed total body ...

Background: Serum inflammation-based scores can predict clinical outcomes in several cancer types, including adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). They may also be altered in benign adrenocortical tumours and correlate with cortisol excess. It is unclear whether the inflammation-based score alterations in ACC reflects malignancy, steroid excess, or both.Methods: A total of 490 patients were included (429 [87.6%] with adrenocortical adenoma [ACA] and 61 [12.4%]...

Introduction: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neoplasm that occurs sporadically in 75% (sMTC) and hereditarily in 25% (fMTC) of cases caused by germinal mutations of the RET gene as an autosomal dominant trait. fMTC occurs in the setting of three syndromes: fMTC alone without any other clinical manifestations; and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A) and 2B (MEN2B) syndromes. In fMTC, cases are distinguished into index cases (1st clinically detecte...

Background: Adrenal masses are detected in 5-7% of adults. The European guidelines on managing adrenal incidentalomas published in 20161 have standardised the management of these patients. However, evidence of the guidelines’ impact on clinical care is still lacking.Methods: We conducted a retrospective, comprehensive review of clinical presentation, radiological characteristics, final diagnosis, and outcome of a large cohort of patients ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare aggressive cancer with heterogeneous behaviour. Disease surveillance relies on frequent imaging, which comes with significant radiation exposure. Here we investigated the role of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) in ACC monitoring. We extracted ccfDNA from 1-4 ml EDTA-plasma using the Nonacus Cell3TMXtract or the Qiagen QIAamp MinElute kit and quantified by fluorimeter. We investigated 63 patients with ACC (25M/38F, 52±...

Objective: Quantify classic and 11-oxygenated androgens in serum and saliva and determine variations across age, sex, body mass index (BMI), menstruation and hormonal contraception use.Methods: Morning serum samples were collected from 292 healthy volunteers (125 men, 22-95 years; 167 women, 21-91 years). Morning saliva was collected from 83 healthy volunteers (51 women, 32 men). 25 individuals (12 women, 13 men) also collected a 7-timepoint diurnal sali...

Objectives: Currently 131I treatment after surgery is suggested in selected intermediate-risk and in high-risk patients with DTC. In patients with radio-avid structural disease and in those with biochemical disease a second 131I treatment could be considered. However data about the impact of the second 131I treatment on clinical status remains controversial.Methods: Clinical data of 231 DTC patients followed at the Unit o...

Introduction: Hand-foot syndrome (HFS), or palmo-plantar erythrodysplasia, is an adverse event related to lenvatinib therapy. In the clinical trial (SELECT study) HFS was reported in 32% of patients, but only 3% was grade ≥3. In real-life studies the frequency was variable: between 8 and 55%.Patients: We collected clinical and pathological data about 165 patients with thyroid cancer treated with lenvatinib, followed up between 2012 and 2022 at the ...

Case history: A previously well 45-year-old lady presented with a 3-year history of hypertension initially diagnosed at a routine health check. Her blood pressure (BP) was 170-180/90-100 mmHg.Investigations: Showed hypokalaemia (K+= 3 mmol/l; NR 3.5-5.3 mmol/l), raised aldosterone (976pmol/l; NR 100-500pmol/l) and supressed renin activity (<0.2nmol/l/h), meeting criteria for diagnosing primary aldosteronism (PA). CT adrenals showed a 2.5 cm left adre...