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Endocrine Abstracts (2014) 35 P655 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.35.P655

1Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Istituto di Endocrinologia e Malattie del Metabolismo, Roma, Italy; 2Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Servizio di Dietetica, Roma, Italy; 3Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Istituto di Medicina Interna, Roma, Italy; 4Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Dipartimento per la tutela della salute della donna e della vita nascente, Roma, Italy.


Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe eating disorder characterized by significantly low body weight and fear of gaining weight. Amenorrhea is a very frequent feature in AN and it could persist after normalization of BMI. A well-represented fat mass and an adequate body composition (BC) are necessary for resumption of periods. Patients affected by AN, although in the remission phase, fear of becoming fat and refuse to gain weight. In our study we evaluated the effect of a normocaloric 30% fat diet on BC in patients with AN in weight recovery and its effects in resuming menstrual cycles. Twelve patients were studied: six (group 1) with AN and hypothalamic amenorrhea matched with six (group 2) healthy controls homogeneous for age, body weight and BMI. The following laboratory tests were performed: FSH and LH basal and after GnRH stimulation, oral glucose tolerance test, fT3, fT4, TSH, cortisol, 17β-estradiol, 17OH progesterone, testosterone, DHEAS, SHBG, vitamin D and PTH. All subjects underwent BIA and DEXA. Group 1 was on 30% lipids diet regime for 6 months. The content of adipose tissue in the group 1 was significantly underrepresentated (P=0.02) and, after 6 months of diet therapy, the fat mass level was increased (P=0.03). Furthermore GnRH stimulated FSH levels decreased and LH levels significantly increased (P=0.05). Insulin levels after oral glucose tolerance test were significantly decreased at time 90′ and 120′ (P=0.01 and P=0.049) compared to the baseline. In two of six amenorrhoeic patients spontaneous menstruations restarted. The increase of fat mass obtained after 30% fat diet regime improved hormonal levels and reduced insulin resistance. It should be essential to study the effects of dietotherapy in the long term and increase our study-population.

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