Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Non-classical 21-hydroxylase deficiency (NC21OHD) is a mild form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia associated with different degrees of postnatal virilisation. Elevated serum androgen concentrations have been reported to be a risk factor for infertility, early pregnancy loss, and recurrent miscarriages in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).Aims: The aim of this study was to assess time to conceive and pregnancy outcome in NC21OHD w...

Background: Androgens promote erythropoiesis and have been used for the treatment of anaemia. Furthermore, polycythemia is a known side effect of androgen therapy. In congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), elevated adrenal androgens cause virilisation of female patients. Glucocorticoid treatment reduces androgen levels but there is a difficult balance between excess androgens and suppressed androgens due to excess glucocorticoid treatment.Aim of study: To...

Purpose: To evaluate safety and efficacy of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation therapy for unilateral aldosterone producing adrenal adenoma in normalising aldosterone secretion.Patients: Eight cases of aldosterone producing adrenal adenoma with following conditions: i) CT detectable adenoma without any risky organs on a puncture route. ii) Intervening adipose tissue between target adenoma and adjacent risky organs (pancreas or intestine). iii) Unilater...

Introduction: We report the largest case series of concomitant prolactinoma and aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), diagnosed in four patients from the German Conn Registry and in three patients at the Hypertension Unit, University of Torino. A disproportionate number (five out of seven) presented with macro-prolactinomas indicating that elevated prolactin (PRL) concentrations may play a role in APA formation. Further, increased expression of PRLR in the zona glomeru...

Introduction: Some authors consider aldosteronism to be a spectrum, ranging from aldosterone-associated (or low-renin) hypertension (AAH) to primary hyperaldosteronism (PHA) due to bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Thus, blood pressure (BP) response to mineralocorticoid-receptor blockade (MRB) could be similar.Methods: Retrospective analysis of 60 patients. Screening per Endocrine Society guidelines, positive screening: aldosterone (pg/ml) to direct-renin (...

The recently published Endocrine Society Clinical Practice guideline on phaeochomocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) recommends measuring plasma metanephrines (PMets) with patients in the supine position after an overnight fast and using appropriately defined reference intervals.1 Studies have shown higher diagnostic sensitivities using the latter pretesting criteria.2 However, this testing protocol is resource intensive and arguably impractical in routine c...

Background: Urinary metanephrine (MN) and normetanephrine (NMN) are used to detect recurrence of pheochromocytoma during post-operative period. Currently, reference ranges of urinary MN and NMN obtained from healthy individuals are applied to subjects with adrenalectomy. However, studies regarding the property of using reference ranges from healthy subjects in pheochromocytoma subjects with adrenalectomy are limited.Aim: To compare urinary MN and NMN con...

Introduction: The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has a well-documented association with increase cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The patients with OSAS have a high prevalence of hypertension (HTA).Case report: A 52-year-old female with a history of poorly controlled resistant HTA was admitted to our hospital with severe HTA. She had a history of fatigue and intermittent episodes of palpitations. Laboratory evaluation was significant for ...