Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The plasma cortisol response to the ACTH test is known to vary significantly by assays. An automated cortisol immunoassays with increased specificity due to the shift from polyclonal to MABs, and standardized against mass spectrometry was recently introduced, with an expected decrease in cortisol concentrations by 20%. Cut-offs used in clinical practice for patient evaluation will thus have to be adjusted. We aimed to assess the normal cortisol response to ACTH s...

Repeated blood sampling is required in certain clinical and research settings, which is currently performed by drawing blood from venous catheters requiring manual handling of each sample at time of collection. A novel body-worn device for repeated serial samples, Fluispotter®, with automated extraction, collection and storage of up to 20 venous dried blood spot samples (DBS) over the course of 20 h may overcome problems with current methods for serial sampling. The purpo...

Objective: Early puberty is associated with increased risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease. Low sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels are a feature of early puberty as well as conditions associated with increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of the present study was to evaluate SHBG as predictor of glucose metabolism and metabolic risk during puberty.Research design and methods: Cross-sectional study on 132 healthy Caucasian children and adoles...

Introduction: Prednisolone is standard treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA), but many patients are reluctant to discontinue prednisolone treatment even after remission of the inflammatory conditions. Prednisolone-induced adrenal insufficiency can give manifest or latent symptoms, causing failure to taper and withdraw prednisolone. We therefore aimed to find the prevalence of adrenal insufficiency in prednisolone-treated patients with PMR/GCA...

Background: Patients on long-term glucocorticoid treatment are at risk of adrenal insufficiency during glucocorticoid treatment. The side effect can occur during glucocorticoid treatment if there is a mismatch between glucocorticoid requirements and production/intake. High-dose glucocorticoid treatment is often sufficient to overcome most stressful situations. A low-dose of 5 mg prednisolone/day is however, equivalent to 20 mg hydrocortisone, a dose often used as basal glucoco...

Objective: We aimed to assess the prevalence of glucocorticoid-induced adrenal insufficiency in prednisolone treated patients, and its relation to glucocorticoid dose and duration of treatment.Subjects and measures: As part of a larger study 48 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (33 women, aged 34–85 years) treated with a mean prednisolone dose of 7.0 mg (range 5–20 mg) per day, and a mean duration of treatment of 95 months (range: 6–360 m...

Introduction: Evaluation of glucocorticoid production generally requires a dynamic test. Cut-off levels for baseline cortisol concentrations predicting the outcome of a Synacthen test have been proposed for different cortisol assays. With introduction of the new Roche Elecsys Cortisol II assay, P-cortisol concentrations are expected to decrease by 20%. We have investigated cut-off levels for baseline P-cortisol concentrations measured with the Roche Elecsys Cortisol II assay t...

Estroprogestins (EP) are the short-acting hormonal contraceptives most commonly used in Europe, and include combined oral contraceptives (COCs), the patch, and the vaginal ring. Although the safety and efficacy of EP have being extensively investigated, scarce and controversial evidence is available on their impact on female sexuality. The potential negative effects of EP on female mood and desire are hypothesized to derive from sex steroids altering the interplay between neur...

Research into ageing has been transformed by the discovery of single gene mutations that extend healthy lifespan in laboratory model organisms. Furthermore, the highly conserved, nutrient-sensing, insulin/IGF/TOR signalling network has proved to play a role in ageing in organisms including yeast, invertebrates and mice, and possibly also humans. This signalling network also mediates at least some of the effects of dietary restriction, which also improves health during ageing a...

The classic Drosophila model system has been utilized by the Heck laboratory for the characterization of novel and conserved genes essential for cell cycle and cellular physiology. The invadolysin mutation was first identified in D. melanogaster, which gave rise to abnormally-condensed chromosomes and had a lethal effect on the late larval stages. Invadolysin is a novel zinc-metalloprotease that we have shown to link cell division and cell migration ...