Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The Endocrine Society Guidelines recommend screening for hypercortisolism especially in patients with specific features that best discriminate Cushing’s Syndrome (CS): easy bruising, facial plethora, proximal myopathy and striae. Clinical experience suggests that these features, though suggestive of hypercortisolism, are not enough sensitive. Indeed, patients with hypercortisolism frequently manifest primarily less discriminatory cortisol-related features, suc...

Introduction: TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas (TSHomas) are a rare cause of central hyperthyroidism, accounting for less than 1% of all pituitary adenomas, with a prevalence in the general population of 1-2 cases per million.Case Presentation: A 45-year-old female patient presented in 2009 with hypertension and tachycardia: blood tests revealed an inappropriately normal TSH with high fT3/fT4 levels and primary hyperaldosteronism. She declined further in...

Introduction: Feminizing hormone therapy (HT) for male-assigned at birth (AMAB) includes estrogens, often in combination with anti-androgens. Several studies have reported an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases and venous thromboembolism in AMAB receiving estrogens. Indeed, procoagulant changes induced by estrogen-based HT occur in transwomen as well as in cisgender individuals. Therefore, using estrogen in gender-affirming HT is relatively contraindicated in those ...

Endocrine sequelae occur following cancer therapy. The majority of studies focus on childhood survivors of common cancers, in particular brain tumours, and isolated growth hormone deficiency (GHD) following radiotherapy is well recognised. The need for endocrine follow up in adults or following treatment of less common cancers with lower survival rates is often overlooked. Survival following treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer is improving. Although therapy options are changin...

The Standards of Care version 8 (SOC 8) for transgender and gender diverse people suggest maintaining estradiol (E2) levels between 100-200 pg/ml in Assigned Male at Birth (AMAB) subjects who desire a complete feminization during gender affirmation hormone therapy (GAHT). However, data about estrogen dose therapy and corresponding serum concentrations are scarce, especially regarding gel formulations. Our aim was to retrospectively compare E2 serum levels in AMAB patients unde...

Obesity is a well established risk factor for congestive heart failure. The existence of an ‘obese cardiomyopathy’ has been hypothesized, as the complex combination of the effects of both hemodynamic and metabolic alterations. Aim of this study was to analyze the effect of bariatric surgery on the early myocardial alterations detected in a group of severe obese patients by high frame rate integrated backscatter (IBS). Twenty severely obese patients (5 males, 15 femal...