Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diagnosing endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is often challenging because of the difficulty in interpreting results of dynamic endocrine tests. One of the recommended initial tests is the measurement of late-night salivary cortisol (LNSaCl). Some articles describe added value of late-night salivary cortisone (LNSaCn) measurements. However, published cut-off values of LNSaCl and LNSaCn vary widely between studies, which may be related to different experimental...

Introduction: Physicians in our hospital notified the laboratory staff of a number of patients at the outpatient clinic with increased free T4 (fT4) concentrations without (complete) suppression of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). This phenomenon appeared to occur more frequently following implementation of a new automated fT4 immunoassay. The discordance between fT4 and TSH concentrations may be explained by analytical issues (not further explained here), incorrect referenc...

Objective: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and liver fat content are associated with insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease and show clear sex differences. Our objective is to determine the effect of estradiol and testosterone on VAT and liver fat content in trans women (assigned male at birth, identify as female) and trans men (assigned female at birth, identify as male).Design: Open-label partly randomized intervention study in 8 trans women and 1...

Introduction: Adolescents spend much time using blue-light emitting screen devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers. Blue light affects the central circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) as well as melatonin secretion by the pineal gland. Screen use in adolescents strongly associates with reduced sleep quality and sleep duration. However, there is a lack of intervention studies that reduce blue light exposure due to screen use in adolescents.<p clas...

Background: Clinically non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFMA) have been reported to express various somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes, but results are inconsistent across different studies. This may be related to limited sensitivity and specificity of techniques used to date, i.e. immunohistochemistry in surgical specimens and 111In-DTPA-octreotide scintigraphy (Octreoscan) in vivo. The aim of this study was to assess SSTR expression in NFMA <em...

Introduction: In patients with ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism, the corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH) test and the high dose dexamethasone suppression test (HDDST) can be used to differentiate between pituitary ACTH production (Cushing’s disease) and ectopic ACTH production. The rationale is that a pituitary adenoma will show some response to CRH and ACTH whereas an ectopic source is less responsive to ACTH and CRH. However, there is discussion about the clinical util...

Rationale: At present, there is no approved medical treatment for patients with clinically non-functioning pituitary adenoma. A number of open-label studies suggest that treatment with somatostatin analogues may prevent tumour progression in selected patients. In vivo assessment of somatostatin receptor status using 68Ga-DOTATATE PET could help to select patients responsive to treatment.Trial objective: To investigate the effect of the somatosta...

Background: Patients with non-functioning pituitary macroadenoma (NFMA) currently have no established medical treatment options. Somatostatin analogues may decrease tumour size, but randomised controlled trials are lacking. In vivo somatostatin receptor assessment with 68Ga-DOTATATE PET could help in selecting patients for treatment. We aimed to determine the effect of the somatostatin analogue lanreotide on tumour size in patients with a 68Ga-DOTATATE PE...

Background: Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (PanNETs) are highly prevalent in Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and one of the main causes of mortality. Conventional imaging is the mainstay of PanNET screening/surveillance in MEN1. This study aims to assess the diagnostic accuracy of conventional pancreatic imaging studies and to determine the added value of pancreatic fine needle aspirations (FNA) for the diagnosis of MEN1-related PanNETs.Meth...