Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Despite biochemical control of GH and IGF-I levels patients with acromegaly continue to have marked impairment of their well-being. The acromegalic arthropathy has been identified as a significant contributor to the impaired well-being of these individuals. We aimed to establish the true prevalence of arthropathy, distribution of joint involvement and use of analgesics for arthropathy in a large series of patients with acromegaly.Methods: Pat...

Background: Despite biochemical control of GH and IGF-I levels patients with acromegaly continue to have marked impairment of their well-being. The acromegalic arthropathy has been identified as a significant contributor to the impaired well-being of these individuals. Few data are available to determine the impact of the arthropathy on function.Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of acromegaly under follow-up in six tertiary pituitary centres were invite...

Background: Patients with acromegaly experience early onset arthropathy characterised by initial joint space widening due to cartilage hyperplasia, with later degenerative changes characterised by joint space narrowing, sclerosis and osteophyte formation. To date no specific treatment is available for the arthropathy these patients experience, with management being limited to analgesics, anti-inflammatory agents, physiotherapy, joint injections, and potentially joint replaceme...

Gastric carcinoids secondary to autoimmune atrophic gastritis (GC type 1) are usually well differentiated neoplasia, with an indolent course and an excellent overall prognosis. However, a subset of these tumors (<5%) may develop advanced disease, with lymph node and/or hepatic metastasis. The pathogenesis of these carcinoids is related to chronic trophic stimuli to enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells due to chronic hypergastrinemia. Treatments directed to remove the source o...

Testicular adrenal rest tumours (TARTs) are benign tumours deemed to originate from ectopic adrenal cells that descend with the testes during fetal development. These cells grow under chronic ACTH stimulation, typically in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). TARTs have also been rarely described in other conditions characterised by chronically elevated ACTH, such as autoimmune primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI). These are benign lesions, but could be misdiagno...

In this observational, retrospective, multicenter study, we analyzed data from 300 patients with pituitary incidentaloma followed in two Italian Hospital Center. We observed a predominance of female patients (65%), with an a mean age at diagnosis of 49 years (higher in men than women, 57 vs 45 years old). The main reason to perform imaging were neurological symptoms not related to the presence of adenomas (56%). Most cases were microadenomas (56%), and macroadenomas were more ...

Metformin (1.1-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride), a widely used antidiabetic drug, has been reported to display potent anticancer properties in various types of cancers, including neuroendocrine tumors. Recently, a potential synergistic activity between metformin and octreotide (SSA) in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (P-NETs) has been proposed. AIP (aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein) acts as tumor suppressor gene in neuroendocrine tumors at pituitary level and it ...

Background: Primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) can be of autoimmune origin (Addison’s disease, AD) or due to inborn disorders of steroidogenesis (congenital adrenal hyperplasia, CAH). Prognosis of patients with PAI has improved considerably after glucocorticoid replacement therapy became available. However, even in recent years, an increased risk of death has been described in both AD and CAH patients. Moreover, even with the current state-of-the-art replacement therapy,...

Context: Available data on the natural history of pituitary incidentalomas (PI) are not strong enough to draw any evidence-based conclusion on timing and length of follow up of these masses, due to heterogeneity and low sample sizes.Objective: To describe the characteristics and the natural history of PI using data from a large cohort of patients investigated in two Italian Pituitary Centers.Patients and methods: Retrospective stud...

Introduction: Immune dysregulation is a feature of Cushing’s syndrome (CS). We report a case of CS that presented with rapidly developing cutaneous Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS).Case description: A previously well 59-year-old heterosexual man presented with a two-month history of proximal muscle weakness, recurrent mouth ulcers, and purplish skin lesions. He had a background history of hypertension. Skin biopsies were compatible with KS. History of pas...