Endocrine Abstracts

The impact of GH/IGF-1 levels on skeletal muscle in patients with acromegaly is still matter of debate. Recently, temporal (TMT) and masseter muscle thickness (MMT) have emerged as reliable indicators of muscle mass, as well as patients’ functional status/prognosis in various clinical context – especially in the oncologic setting. This study aims to investigate the potential correlations between TMT/MMT and patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics. A r...

Purpose: The generally good prognosis of low- and intermediate-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) underscored the need to identify those few patients who relapse. Methods: Records of 299 low- or intermediate-risk DTC patients (mean follow-up 8.2 ± 6.2 years) were retrospectively reviewed. The sample was classified following the American Thyroid Association (ATA) Dynamic Risk Stratification (DRS) system.Results: After class...

Background: Some evidence indicates how bariatric surgery impacts the thyroid function test and, in hypothyroid patients, the dose of levothyroxine (LT4), but data are not univocal. Aim: To examine, in a single center retrospective analysis, the relationship between change in body weight, plasma levels of TSH and dosage of LT4 in patients with thyroid disease undergoing bariatric surgery and to compare the effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) vs sleeve gastrectomy (SG).<...

Somatic mutations in splicing factor 3 subunit B1 (SF3B1) were found in about 20% of PRL-secreting PitNETs. SF3B1 is involved in pre-mRNA splicing and required for assembly of the U2 complex, which is critical for branch site recognition and the early stages of spliceosome assembly. Patients with mutant prolactinomas showed higher PRL levels and shorter progression-free survival compared to wild-type patients. Aims of the present study were: 1) to characterize the genetic prof...

Background: Pubertal induction in girls with hypogonadism through estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) aims at mimicking physiological puberty. To date, the best induction regimen is still to be established.Aims: By setting up a multicentre clinical registry, we analysed longitudinal data on pubertal induction in girls with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism or premature ovarian insufficiency (congenital, acquired, isolated or associated with multiple pituitary...

Introduction: The onset and progression of liver damage in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is tightly associated with metabolic derangements. Steroids may affect lipid metabolism but their alterations in the setting of NAFLD remain to be fully explored.Patients and Methods: We analyzed data from 121 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 108 controls (CT). A panel of 26 steroids (including glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, and prog...

Background: Osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone mass and a compromised bone microstructure, leading to increased bone fragility and fracture risk. Currently, the gold standard for diagnosis is the bone mineral density (BMD) measurement by DXA. However, approximately half of fragility fractures occurs in the context of normal or slightly decreased BMD values.Protocol: In this cross-sectional study, we performed an artificial intelligence (AI)-ba...

Dopamine receptor type 2 (DRD2) agonists (DA) are the first-choice treatment for prolactin (PRL)-secreting pituitary tumors, but poorly effective in non-functioning (NF)-PitNETs. Along with G protein-dependent signaling, DRD2 also mediates non-canonical beta-arrestin-dependent pathways, where reduction of AKT phosphorylation plays a leading role for the antiproliferative effect of DRD2 in pituitary tumors. Through UNC9994 and MLS1547, a beta-arrestin 2-biased and a G protein-b...

Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACCs) are rare endocrine tumors with poor prognosis. They overexpress the insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), that drives a proliferative autocrine loop by binding to IGF1R and IR. The majority of studies focused on IGF1R as mediator of IGF2 biological effects, but recently a high expression of IR, in particular of the isoform A, was observed in most ACCs, suggesting a potential role of this receptor in modulating IGF2 effects in adrenocortical tumo...

Background: The systematic use of confirmatory tests in the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) increases costs, risks and complexity to the diagnostic work-up. In light of this, some authors proposed aldosterone-to-renin (ARR) cut-offs and/or integrated flow-charts to avoid this step. Patients with resistant hypertension (RH), however, are characterized by a dysregulated renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, even in the absence of PA. Thus, it is unclear whether those str...