Endocrine Abstracts

NPY acts centrally to stimulate appetite and the HPA axis. During late pregnancy enhanced inhibition of parvocellular paraventricular nucleus (pPVN) corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH)/ arginine vasopressin (AVP) neurones reduces HPA-axis stress responses1,2. We investigated activation of hypothalamic neurones regulating HPA responses to NPY, and a role for endogenous opioids in HPA hyporesponsiveness in late pregnancy.Pregnant (d21) and vi...

Osteoporosis is considered to be a cardinal feature of Cushing's syndrome with a reported incidence as high as 90%. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline bone mineral density (BMD) in 21 patients (4 males) aged 19-63 (median, 37) years with untreated Cushing's syndrome. 18 patients had pituitary dependent disease and 3 adrenal adenomas. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was used to measure the BMD at the lumbar spine (L1-L4), left femoral neck (LFN) and tot...