Endocrine Abstracts

Iodine-131 is increasingly the treatment of choice of the hyperthyroidism of Graves’ disease and nodular goitre and is gaining popularity as a means of achieving significant goitre shrinkage in euthyroid patients. There is, however, anxiety among a significant number of patients about the dangers of radiation in general and it is these same patients who pose the question of whether prolonged treatment with antithyroid drugs is an acceptable alternative. In the past, physi...

Elevated macroprolactin level is one of the reason of misdiagnosis and mismanagement of hyperprolactinamia. About 10% of population have incidentalomas and it also can combine with increasing of prolactin (Prl).Three hundred and thirty patients with hyperprolactinemia (Prl>600 mU/l) were studied: 192 women and 138 men in age of 30 (25; 39) and 35 (29;46) years respectively. Clinical, biochemical and MRI methods were used. Prl, LH, FSH and Testosteron...

BackgroundIt has been shown that diets high in cis-MUFA and high-antioxidant diets are beneficial in type 2 diabetes (Garg 1998; Ros 2003; Franz et al. 2002). The aim of our study was to assess compliance with current dietary recommendations (Diabetes UK 2003) with particular emphasis on these nutrients.MethodsEthical approval was obtained to use a food diary and lifestyle questionnaire. 120 Cau...

Background: An increasing number of studies assess quality of life (QoL) in patients with pituitary diseases. At present, available disease-specific QoL questionnaires do not completely cover the patient perspective of QoL. Furthermore, there are no disease-specific questionnaires available which inventories patient’s needs for help for impairments in QoL.Objective: To develop and validate a disease-specific QoL questionnaire for patients with pitui...

Objective: Treatment with glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids has changed congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) from a fatal to a chronic lifelong disease. As a result of long-term treatment, including chronic (over-)treatment with glucocorticoids, patients with CAH may develop an adverse cardiovascular risk profile. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cardiovascular risk profile of adult CAH patients.Patients and measurements: In this case...

Infertility is a serious problem in female as well in male CAH patients. The most important cause of male infertility in CAH patients is the presence of testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART). The reported prevalence in adult CAH patients is up to 96%. TART have no malignant features but because of their typical localization near the mediastinum testis, longstanding compression of the seminiferous tubules may lead to obstructive azoospermia and irreversible damage of testicular...

Adrenal steroids and alterations in steroid metabolism are important factors in the development of obesity in Zucker rats. One might predict, therefore, that the function of the adrenal gland differs between lean and obese Zucker animals. Accordingly, we investigated adrenal gland morphology and function and have considered not only glucocorticoids and HPA activity but also the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Plasma samples and adrenal glands were obtained from young 12 ...

Bile acids inhibit glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid metabolism. However bile acids may also influence hormone action by modulating steroidogenesis in the adrenal gland. In rodents adrenal cholesterol supply for steroidogenesis is derived from circulating HDL through the actions of scavenger receptor SR-B1. Since hepatic SR-B1 expression is known to be regulated by bile acids, we have investigated whether adrenal SR-B1 is similarly affected and, if so, whether adrenal lipid...

Oestrogens are capable of inducing rat prolactin gene transcription through liganded Oestrogen Receptor (ER) binding a degenerate oestrogen response element (ERE) sequence on the promoter 1440 bp upstream of the transcription start site. ER binding is thought to interact with DNA bound Pit-1 leading to chromatin looping bringing enhancer elements into proximity with the transcription start site. This ERE sequence, TGTCActaTGTCA, differs from the consensus GGTCAnnnTGACC by two ...

Background: Hypothyroidism is a common endocrine disorder and the standard treatment is replacement therapy with levothyroxine (LT4). Although many hypothyroid patients improve upon treatment with LT4, a proportion seems to experience residual hypothyroid complaints despite treatment, even when plasma TSH and FT4 are within reference ranges.Methods: Using an on-line survey we investigated i) the health-related quality of life (QoL) (ThyPRO), ii) the acti...