Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Acromegaly is a rare chronic and debilitating disease. More than half of patients are not well controlled and most of them require chronic surveillance. Although IGF1 and GH circulating levels are the main targets, they are not in close relationship with the behaviour of the tumour, the clinical course of the disease, the therapy response and the associated comorbidities. Metabolomics is an emergent research tool that we have used to examine in a massive manner the...

Background: Residual morbidity in patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in remission significantly affects Quality of Life (QoL). While sustained muscle weakness is a frequent complaint in these patients, the impact of muscle dysfunction on their psychophysical wellbeing is currently unknown. Patients & methods: We included 28 female patients [mean(±SD) age, 50±12 years; mean (±SD) BMI, 26.7±3.8] and 26 age- and BMI-matched healthy controls. Mean (...

Aim: Investigate, in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) if thyroglobulin (Tg) values, immediately before and six months post radioiodine ablation are good predictors of disease progression.Materials and methods: Basal Tg values (Tg-B) and rhTSH stimulated Tg (Tg-S) before ablation (0) and 6 months later (6) from 142 DTC patients, with post-surgical ablation therapy between 2003 and 2009 with a follow up of 5 years, were analysed.<p cla...

Introduction: Thyroid gland involvement by Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a very rare condition. It occurs by thyroid infiltration that may result in hypothyroidism. LCH may be also related to neoplastic processes such as leukemias or lymphomas. However, the association with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is exceptional. We introduce a case and review the reported cases of this association.Case report: We describe a 33 year old patient diagnos...

Introduction: Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Carbohydrate metabolism (CHM) is impaired in over 30% of acromegalic patients. Natural history of acromegaly and treatment modalities, i.e. surgery, somatostatin analogues (SSA) and pegvisomant, may impact in a different way on CHM.Aim: To assess CHM alterations (impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes mellitus (DM)) in acromegaly and their relationship with cl...

Background: Acromegaly is a slowly progressive rare disease caused by an increase in growth hormone secretion that causes a subsequent rise in insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), both contributing to the excessive growth of the extremities, soft tissues and organs, in addition to other comorbidities directly interfering with patient’s quality of life. Acromegaly patients are concerned about their disease and their treatments, however, publications about patient’s opi...

Introduction: Acromegaly is associated with increased bone turnover and skeletal fragility. Although the GH/IGF1 system plays an important role in bone homeostasis, effects of GH excess on the Wnt signalling pathway are to be determined. Bone quantitative CT (QCT) provides a volumetric, tridimensional measure of bone mass at the trabecular and cortical level.Aim: i) To compare volumetric bone density (vBMD) using QCT in patients with acromegaly vs gender...

Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), the visceral fat of de myocardium, has been positively related to insulin resistance (IR), cardiovascular risk and the left ventricular myocardial mass. Whether EAT thickness in acromegaly is mediated by GH/IGF-1, IR or other factors remains to be elucidated.Objective: The aims of this study were: 1) To investigate whether EAT in patients with ACRO is linked to IR and pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory rel...

Background: Muscle weakness may persist in patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) long-term after resolution of hypercortisolism, but mechanisms determining this sustained impairment are not known. We hypothesized that alteration of muscle structure, due to fatty infiltration, is associated with muscle dysfunctions in these patients.Patients & methods: Twenty-six CS women [mean(±S.D.) age 49±12 years; mean(±S....

Background: Acromegaly (ACRO) is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, however, there is no evidence of an increase in ischemic heart disease in these patients. We hypothesized that non-classical cardiovascular risk factors such as epicardial fat (EF), interventricular septum thickness (IST), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), may be increased in ACRO and contribute to this higher cardiovascular morbidity.Objective: To eva...