Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The detection of a unique genetic marker is not possible for multifactorial diseases, such as thyroid cancer (TC), where the pathological phenotype is given by the contribution of multiple genes, environmental factors and lifestyle. We found a mathematical model for inferring the risk of thyroid cancer, an example of multifactorial disease.Methods: Genetic data represented by 184 SNPs associated to thyroid tumors were used for Bayesian clus...

Introduction: HIV infection treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) seems to be associated with hypogonadism in men. Less is known in HIV-infected women gonadal status. The aim of this study is to investigate gonadal function, in menopausal HIV-infected women compared sex- and age-matched healthy subjects (HS).Methods: We retrospectively compared 188 HIV-infected women with 192 HS selected reviewing record charts and laboratory database...

Introduction: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 varies widely, depending on population characteristics, country, age and disease severity. Moreover, pre-existing DM seems to double the risk of both critical COVID-19 and mortality.Aim: To evaluate incidence and mortality risk of COVID-19 in a large diabetic population in Northern Italy.Methods: A retrospective, observational, bi...

Objective: Highly Active Antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been associated with several endocrine abnormalities. Data concerning thyroid dysfunction in HIV are still controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunctions and their association with HAART and HIV-infection in a large cohort of HIV-infected patients.Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out involving HIV-infected patients whose t...

Background and aim of the study: Several ultrasound (US) classifications for estimating thyroid nodules risk have been proposed. Since most of them are hardly applicable in clinical practice, we created a local tool, named Modena classification (MC), considering US characteristics and clinician subjective impression. The aim is to verify the diagnostic accuracy of MC and to compare it to US classifications of American Thyroid Association(ATA) (1) and British Thyroid Associatio...

Background: The interest in the potential effect of thyromimetics in lowering serum cholesterol is growing. Thyroid hormone actions on lipid metabolism are exerted in the liver and mediated by the T3 receptor TRβ1. The creation of molecules transported into hepatocytes by liver-specific transporters can increase the liver selectivity of thyromimetics. Sodium taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide (NTCP), a solute carrier protein primarily expressed on the basolateral me...

Introduction: Growth Hormone deficiency (GHD) is frequent in patients with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy. GHD seems to depend on HIV-related lipodystrophy and to be less frequent in women.Aim of the study: To investigate the association of gender, body composition and GH/IGF1 axis, and to clarify whether GHD in HIV-infected patients is functional or a clinical entity.Methods...

Introduction: Thyroid function is commonly impaired in β-thalassemic patients with an estimated prevalence of hypothyroidism of 9–11%. According to literature, iron overload is the main cause of tissue damage involving both thyroid and pituitary gland, thus leading to primary or secondary hypothyroidism respectively. However, thyroid morphology has been rarely investigated in adults. The aim of this study is to evaluate thyroid volume (TV) and thyroid morphology in &...

Pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) and placental human choriogonadotropin (hCG) are two heterodimeric glycoprotein hormones regulating reproduction. They bind the same receptor (LHCGR) expressed in gonadal cells, activating hormone-specific G protein- and β-arrestins-dependent signaling cascades, before LHCGR internalization. LH induces preferential proliferative signals, while hCG activates mainly the steroidogenic pathway, reflecting their physiological roles. In this s...

Background: Screening serum calcitonin (sCT) measurement in patients with thyroid nodules is still debated. Moreover, sCt cutoffs for medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) are not univocally defined. Also, sensitivity of cytology by fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAb) has been demonstrated to detect approximately half of MTCs. Ct measurement in fine-needle aspiration washout fluid (Ct-FNAb) has high sensitivity and specificity and is helpful in case of non-diagnostic cytology&#18...