Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive cutaneous malignancy, affecting predominantly caucasian and older individuals (slight male predominance). This neoplasm is associated with a high risk of local recurrence and regional lymph node involvement. Distant metastases are less frequent; they were described in liver, bone, CNS, skin, lung and spleen. The authors describe a clinical case of Merkel cell carcinoma with a single metastasis in a thyroid nodule....

Raloxifene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator which has shown to decrease bone resorption, increase bone density and reduce vertebral fracture rate in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Recent studies have shown a decrease on breast cancer incidence after raloxifene treatment. Although the mechanism is not clear, its mixed agonist and antagonist properties in different tissues could partially explain this effect.Objective: To evaluate the ef...

The Spanish acromegaly registry (REA) is an online epidemiological database created in 1997 to collect clinical and biochemical data of patients with acromegaly followed in Spain.Aim: To study trends in acromegaly treatment over time in Spain.Methods: REA is an online database in which registered endocrinologists collect data from all acromegalic patients seen at their practices in Spain. In the last year the neuroendocrine group o...

Adiponectin and leptin have been described as potential contributors to bone metabolism. The effect of anticatabolic drugs on these adipokines and their relationship with bone metabolism have not been clearly clarified.Aims: (1) Evaluate adiponectin and leptin levels in osteoporosic postmenopausal women and their relationship with BMD, bone turnover and osteoclastogenesis markers. (2) Analyze changes on adiponectin and leptin levels after treatment with ...

Low concentrations of vitamin D leads to secondary hiperparathyroidism, bone loss, and an increase of osteoporotic fractures in populations at risk. Adequate vitamin D and calcium intake is considered an essential component of postmenopausal osteoporosis management. Several epidemiological studies have assessed the prevalence of low serum vitamin D concentrations, indicating that vitamin D inadequacy (<30 ng/ml) is a problem world-wide.Aims: To evalu...

Thiazolidinediones have demonstrated some efficacy in promoting radioiodine uptake of previously poorly radioiodine-responsive thyroid cancers. We describe the effect of rosiglitazone, in promoting uptake in thyroid metastatic tissue with weak uptake in order to treatment with radioiodine in two patients.Case 1: A 62-year-old woman with thyroid cancer and negative I-131 body scan post therapy (150 mCi) with presence of recurrent disease (PET positive in ...

In autoimmune thyroid disease some diverse neurological alterations like dementia, psychosis or peripheral neuropathy, are described. Hashimoto’s encephalopathy (EH) is a serious form of these neurological alterations. We describe three cases with different presentation and morphologic normal tests where cerebral SPECT was diagnostic.Case n°1. A 32-year-old male diagnosed of autoimmune hypothyroidism which presents paresthetics and muscular sti...

Human placenta expresses a large variety of regulatory factors which are involved in the control of local hormone production, throughout paracrine and/or autocrine mechanisms. Their action may occur in the same tissue where they originate, as well as in the contiguous tissues (fetal membranes, uterus).By using primary cultures, cell lines, or tissue explants (incubated or perifused) it has been shown that neuropeptides, growth factors, cytokines modulate...

Context: Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) is associated with other comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose homeostasis. Vitamin D insufficiency is highly prevalent, and may be a common link between these disorders. Recently, it has been shown that vitamin D may be involved in insulin resistance; however, this relationship has not been well evaluated in women with PMO.Objective: To assess the relationship between circulating lev...

Background and Objective: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is one of the most common diseases in pediatric endocrinology. Non-classical (NC-CAH) forms are characterized by milder enzyme dysfunction and manifests commonly in adolescence or adulthood. The most frequent form of NC-CAH occurs due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency which is caused by defects in the CYP21A2 gene. Our aim was to describe the most common 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21A2) mutations in our geographical area i...