Endocrine Abstracts

Background: According to the Endocrine Society’s guidelines, the screening and diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) are based on the results of the overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST), midnight salivary cortisol and 24-hour urinary free cortisol (UFC) measurements. These 3 tests reflect cortisol levels at the time of sampling without providing retrospective information. Hair cortisol concentration is a non-invasive way to measure cortisol exposure over lon...

The aim of the present study was to compare the assessment of BMD measured either by DEXA or by QUS in patients with AI. We evaluated 40 patients with AI, who underwent an evaluation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and bone densitometry measured either by DEXA (Hologic QDR 4500 W) at lumbar spine and at femur or QUS (Achilles Express) at the right foot. Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) was defined as abnormal response to at least 2 standard tests...

Background: Ferroptosis is an emerging form of regulated necrotic cell death characterized by excessive lipid peroxidation. Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) cells have been shown to be highly susceptible to ferroptosis caused by active steroid hormone synthesis. While therapeutic activation of ferroptosis has been proposed as a novel treatment strategy, its impact on the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) remains elusive. Macrophages are an important TIME component and modulat...

The existing follow-up studies on patients with incidentally discovered adrenal adenoma (AA) focused almost exclusively on repeat imaging and endocrine work-up on a short period.Of consecutive 152 patients with AA referred to our center from 1989 to 2003, we have assessed the risk of developing metabolic disorders and vascular complications in the 74 patients who did not underwent surgery (51 women and 23 men, median age 57, range 25–74 years) durin...

Recent guidelines recommend to use the 1-mg DST to screen for subclinical hypercortisolism assuming that a post-DST cortisol >5.0 μg/dl define this condition. However, several experts suggest a more sensitive cut-off at 1.8 μg/dl while others consider mandatory to confirm unsuppressibility with a 8-mg DST. A consecutive series of 64 patients (22 men, 42 women, aged 28–81 years) with clinically inapparent adrenal adenoma were studied between 2005 and 2007. Th...

Objective: The Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) is a thrombophilic disorder characterised by recurrent venous and/or arterial thromboses and increased pregnancy morbidity. There is growing evidence supporting a functional interplay between the neuroendocrine and immune system; the hypothalamic-pituitary-adreal (HPA) axis plays a pivotal role in this network. Previous studies have described normal cortisol levels in APS patients while occurrence of acute adrenal failure was repo...

Objective: Seventeen patients (9 women, 8 men aged 36 years, 22–58) radically resected for ACC were treated with adjuvant mitotane and prospectically followed from 2000 to 2006.Methods: Stage of ACC: was: 1 stage I,; 12 stage II, 4 stage III; Weiss score 6, 3–9; Ki67% 20, 4–67. Eleven patients had functional tumors. Median duration of treatment was 15 months (range:4–84) and 14 patients are currently on mitotane, 2 died, 1 discontinue...

N363S polymorphism of the human glucocorticoid receptor gene has been detected in the heterozygous state in approximately 3–9% of general European population. This variant has been associated with increased sensitivity to glicocorticoids, increased insulin response to dexamethasone, a tendency towards lower bone mineral density, increased body mass index, and unstable angina. However, other reports found no associations with these pathological conditions. We assessed the ...

The potential side effects of the rhGH therapy have been evaluated only during treatment and the accessible databases have been developed as a post-marketing surveillance only by the Companies distributing rhGH. Aim of the present study was to evaluate health consequences (metabolic diseases and/or malignancies) in adults previously treated with rhGH during childhood. We recruited 284 patients (median age at diagnosis 12 years, range 3–17) who underwent rhGH treatment bet...

The optimal treatment of recurrent adrenocortical cancer (ACC) remains to be established since there are discrepant opinions on the value of repeat surgery. We did a retrospective analysis of the outcome of patients who were referred to our units from 1988 to 2006 for a recurrence of ACC, which occurred 2–83 years after radical removal of the tumor. In that period, the treatment policy of ACC recurrence differed among our units, since oncologists were more accustomed to u...