Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is the major extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves’ disease (GD). Even if usually mild and non-progressive, in its worst forms, GO can represent a major therapeutic challenge, because is not always responsive to the available medical treatments. First line treatment for moderate-to-severe and active GO relies on intravenous (i.v.) methylprednisolone. Optic neuropathy is a sight-threatening complication which can seriously impact ...

Introduction: GEP-NENs represent a heterogeneous group of neoplasms with increasing incidence in the last years. Pathogenesis and risk factors of sporadic GEP-NENs are not clear and still debated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the main risk factors for sporadic GEP-NENs in patients followed by the NETTARE Unit (NeuroEndocrine TAsk force of of ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome).Methods: We performed a case-control study including 32 consecuti...

Introduction: Glucose metabolism impairment is a common complication of acromegaly. Somatostatin analogs (SSAs) are used as both first and second line treatment. The effect of SSAs on glucose metabolism in acromegaly is still debated.Aim: To address the following questions: 1) do SSAs affect glucose metabolism? 2) does the effect correlate with disease control? 3) do different SSAs – Lanreotide (LAN) and octreotide LAR (OCT) – affect metabolism...

Somatostatin (SSTRs) and dopamine (DRs) receptors are expressed in adrenal tumors. It has been demonstrated in pituitary and neuroendocrine tumors that somatostatin-dopamine chimeric molecules, namely dopastatins, which bind both somatostatin (SST2 and/or SST5) and dopamine (D2) receptors, exert a more potent action compared with the single receptor agonists in experimental settings. The aims of this study were to evaluate the expression of DRs and SSTRs, and the effects of do...

The dopamine agonist cabergoline has been found to be effective in inducing normalization of cortisol secretion in 25–50% of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term treatment. Moreover, tumor shrinkage have been documented in selected patients with pituitary corticotroph tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cabergoline withdrawal in patients with a stable normalization of cortisol secretion and stable or absent visualization of p...

Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) is a mild autonomous cortisol hypersecretion without specific clinical syndrome of glucocorticoid excess. The aim of this study was to compare cardiac structure and function in patients with adrenal incidentaloma. Twenty patients and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls entered the study: among patients, 11 had SCS and the remaining nine had normal cortisol secretion All patients and controls were submitted to Doppler echocardiogra...

The first-line treatment of Cushing’s disease is surgery, although it is effective in inducing a long-term remission in around 50% of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). Nowadays, no pituitary tumor-directed medical treatment is available with the exception of cabergoline, which has been recently demonstrated to control cortisol secretion without major side effects in around 40% of patients with Cushing’s disease. Cabergoline has been recently demonstrated to ...

Background: Patients with adrenal incidentalomas and possible autonomous cortisol secretion (pACS) suffer from a high rate of cardiovascular events and mortality. We have previously showed that left ventricular mass index (LVMi) is higher in patients with pACS, compared with patients with non-functioning adenomas (NFA). To date, the management of pACS is still controversial, with a lack of consensus regarding the benefits of surgery.Objectives: This pros...

Background: Overt hypercortisolism is highly associated with venous thromboembolism. Patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) typically show an alteration of the intrinsic coagulation pathway, especially an increase in factor VIII (f-VIII), and increased levels of coagulation inhibitors (i.e., antithrombin III) as a compensatory response. Mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS) has been variably associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events and mortality compared to...

Context: Significant uncertainty exists about the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonographic (US) features used to predict the risk of thyroid cancer in the pediatric population. Moreover, there are not specific indications for thyroid nodule evaluation in patients during the transition age.Objective: The meta-analysis aimed to address the following question: which thyroid nodule US features have the highest accuracy in predicting malignancy in the transiti...