Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Clinical symptoms in craniopharyngioma have been repeatedly described in the literature, but few studies have addressed the issue of acute-onset symptoms in children or adults. Refinements of diagnostic procedures and altered scanning routines over the last two decades may in theory have affected patterns of clinical presentation.Objective: To study the clinical phenotype of patients with newly diagnosed craniopharyngioma, with focus on var...

Prolactinomas are the most prevalent pituitary adenomas. The incidence of prolactinomas varies with age and sex. The ratio between women and men has been estimated to 10:1 before the age of 50 years. Hypogonadism and infertility are important clinical problems associated with prolactinomas. There may be mass effects including visual field defects in a patient with a macroadenoma.Hyperprolactinaemia is a relatively frequent finding in women. It is importa...

Pituitary tumours are usually benign, but aggressive local growth may occur. Malignancy with demonstrable extracranial metastases is rarely seen. Tumour formation is probably the result of genetic changes involving tumour suppressor gene inactivation and oncogene activation. Pituitary adenomas that occur in a familial setting account for 4–5% of the tumours, they can be part of endocrine-related tumour syndromes. In 2006, Vierimaa et al.1 reported the re...

Objective: To study HbA1c as a tool for diagnosing diabetes and to study HbA1c as a cardiovascular risk marker in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).Methods: A retrospective observational study at an academic tertiary-care medical center. In total, 208 premenopausal women with PCOS participated. Patients underwent clinical evaluation (Ferriman–Gallwey score, body mass index, waist, blood pressure), hormone analyses (testosterone, sex hor...

Objective: PCOS may be associated with an increased risk of endometrial hyperplasia (EH) and endometrial cancer (EC), but substantial evidence remains to be established. We investigated the prevalence of EH and EC in a well-characterized group of women with PCOS and/or clinical/biochemical hyperandrogenism.Design: Retrospective, trans-sectional study.Setting: Out-patient clinic at the Departments of Endocrinology and Gynecology, Od...

Introduction: PCOS is characterized by insulin resistance and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.Objective: To study the association between birth weight and risk of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in adult life in Danish women born 1973–1991.Methods: Female offspring born in Denmark during 1973–1991 of Danish mothers (n=523, 757) were included and followed for a total of 4, 739, 547 person-years at risk. Inform...

Objective: The cardiovascular effects of testosterone treatment are debated. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is an independent marker of cardiovascular risk. We investigated the effect of testosterone therapy on OPG levels in ageing men with low normal bioavailable testosterone levels.Design: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of six months testosterone therapy (gel) in 38 men aged 60–78 years with bioavailable testosterone <7.3 nmol/l...

Objective: Smoking may be associated with changes in metabolic risk factors and sex hormones in PCOS.Design: Retrospective trans-sectional study.Patients: Six hundred and fifty caucasian premenopausal women with the diagnoses hirsutism or PCOS were divided according to smoking status: Non-smokers (NS-PCOS=390) and smokers (S-PCOS=260). 119 healthy women were studied as controls (NS-Control=105, S-Control=14)....

Background: The indication for testosterone therapy in ageing hypogonadal men without hypothalamic, pituitary or testicular disease remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of testosterone therapy on insulin sensitivity, substrate metabolism, body composition and lipids in ageing men with relative hypogonadism using a predefined cut-off level for bioavailable testosterone.Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo...

Ghrelin (Ghr) is an orexigenic peptide investigated by Lutter and col. 2008 for its potential role in the development of depressive symptoms induced by chronic stress, suggesting that Ghr defends against depressive-like symptoms. Rodent bilateral olfactory bulbectomy (OB) is an animal model that appears to fulfill many of the criteria required for the study of depression; hence, Ghr could be an alternative therapeutic tool for depression therapy. We study the possibility that ...