Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D) is a rare disorder with diverse etiologies. Approximately 30% of cases are labelled idiopathic, often associated with an underlying autoimmune process. This case report presents a previously presumed idiopathic AVP-D, revealing its aetiology after more than a decade of follow-up.Case presentation: A 19-year-old male presented in 2012 with symptoms of AVP-D and non-pruritic papular skin lesions on the ...

Context: Surgery is the first-line treatment option for thyrotropinomas, but medical therapy with somatostatin receptor ligands (SRL) may be used as neoadjuvant treatment and to facilitate safe surgery.Objectives: To determine the extent to which neoadjuvant SRL (i) corrects clinical, laboratory and tissue hyperthyroidism in thyrotropinomas, (ii) induces tumour shrinkage in macroadenomas, and (iii) aids microadenoma detection by 11C-methionine...

Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare, chronic endocrinopathy, that results from persistent hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) and consequently of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). It is well known that GH excess has multisystemic effects throughout the body, but its interaction with the immune system has only been suggested in the last few decades. This prompted us to explore the frequency of autoimmune disorders in a retrospective acromegaly cohort....

Background: Dopamine agonists (DAs) were associated with valvular dysfunction in patients with Parkinson’s disease due to their fibrotic effect through the serotoninergic receptor. It is more difficult to prove the same effects in patients with prolactinoma due to the lower doses, variable doses and the longer follow-up period. Aim: To assess echocardiographic features in patients with prolactinoma under DA treatment.Methods: ...

Background: Differential diagnosis of ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism is crucial to indicate a proper treatment and is based on CRH-, high-dose dexamethasone suppression-test (HDDST) and pituitary MRI. However, up to 50% of cases of Cushing’s disease (CD) present a negative MRI or a visible lesion < 6 mm. In these patients, guidelines suggest to perform bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (BIPSS) in order to establish a correct diagnosis. Aim of this study was ...

Introduction: Breast cancer is, by far, the most frequent cancer among women. Local and systemic factors have been shown to drive growth in breast cancer cells. There is increasing evidence that hormone ghrelin, known for the growth hormone releasing effect and food intake modulator, may also influence cancer growth. Ghrelin has been shown to be produced by some tumor cells, including breast cancer cells.Objective: To analyze ghrelin expression in correl...

Background: In patients with acromegaly, mortality depends most on achievement of control of GH/IGF1 levels. However, some of the complications of acromegaly still develop, despite successful control of disease. The aim of the study is to correlate mortality and morbidity with cumulative GH exposure in these patients compared to last GH/IGF1 level.Methods: We studied retrospectively 336 patients with acromegaly consecutively evaluated at least twice duri...

Background and Aims: GH receptor antagonist (Pegvisomant –PEG) has been shown to obtain IGF1 normalization in 60–90% of patients with acromegaly in clinical trials. The aim of the study is to evaluate real life response and side effects of PEG treatment in monotherapy versus combined with somatostatin analogues and/or cabergoline in patients with somatostatin analogues resistant acromegaly.Methods: We included 40 patients (22F/18 M) cons...

Background: Pituitary tumors are mostly sporadic, but in less than 5% of cases they can be associated to genetic syndromes, so harbouring germline mutations. Familial pituitary tumors are often more aggressive, so it’s important to detect them, for both a better early diagnosis and genetic counselling. Before the development of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), Sanger sequencing was the most widely used method of DNA sequencing. Therefore, DNA samples were analysed follo...

Introduction: Hypotonic hyponatremia is frequently observed after pituitary surgery. In this context, use of vasopressin V2-receptor antagonists is not standardized. The aim of this retrospective study is to explore the role of Tolvaptan in the management of acute hyponatraemia after pituitary surgery.Methods: We collected clinical, safety and efficacy data of patients treated with Tolvaptan after pituitary surgeryin our Centre between April 2011 and Feb...