Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pasireotide is a promising treatment option for patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). The measurement of salivary cortisol is useful for diagnosing hypercortisolism and monitoring patients with CD following pituitary surgery. It may also be a better index of cortisol secretion than serum cortisol or urinary free cortisol (UFC). We investigated the value of salivary cortisol in monitoring short-term efficacy of pasireotide in patients with CD.<p class="ab...

The management of Cushing’s disease (CD) can be problematic, particularly when the disease persists following pituitary surgery. Here we report the case of a 55-year old woman with CD that persisted after repeat transsphenoidal surgery. The patient had an overt phenotype with facial rubeosis, central obesity with supraclavicular fat accumulation, cervical fat pad and proximal muscle weakness. She had received anti-hypertensive drugs and insulin for diabetes mellitus. Horm...

Objective: The corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) test does not reliably distinguish between Cushing’s disease (CD) and normality or pseudo-Cushing state (PC). In this study we assessed whether the application of novel criteria could enhance its diagnostic performance.Design: Retrospective study.Patients: Fifty-one subjects with CD, 26 with PC and 31 control subjects (CT).Measurements: All subjects un...

Background: The development of a vascular supply is a critical factor in the growth and metastatic spread of malignant tumors. The recognition of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway as a key regulator of angiogenesis has led to a considerable efforts to exploit its potential for therapy in oncology. Endocrine gland-derived (EG-VEGF) has been recently identified as an endothelial cell mitogen, predominantly expressed in steroidogenic tissues; it represents a n...

Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene polymorphisms have been associated with interindividual variations in glucocorticoid sensitivity in healthy individuals.Aim: Aim of this study was to investigate whether there was an association with sensitivity to glucocorticoids and bone mineral density in HPA axis disorders.Methods: We analyzed 3 polymorphisms of the GR gene (Bcl1, N363S, ER22/23EK) in 185 subjects: 52 patients with Cushing&#146...

Cushing’s disease (CD) occur more frequently in females than in males, but in men this disease seems appear at a younger age and with more severe symptoms and clinical course. Aim of this study was to compare clinical features and biochemical indices of hypercortisolism in male and female patients with CD.Methods: Forty-five patients (35 females and 10 males) with confirmed CD were analyzed. All patients underwent a complete biochemical and endocrin...

Introduction: Pasireotide is the first pituitary-directed drug approved for Cushing’s disease (CD). We report our 10-years experience with pasireotide in CD reviewing and analysing data about all the patients treated with pasireotide at our referral centre both in randomised trials and in clinical practice.Patients and methods: Twenty active CD patients were treated. Fourteen patients were treated with pasireotide in randomised trials and six patien...

Objective: Interindividual variation in glucocorticoid sensitivity can be partly explained by polymorphisms in the GC receptor gene. The most frequent polymorphisms of the GR gene (N363S and BclI) are associated with increased BMI, less lean mass, higher cholesterol and insulin levels. In the present study we investigated the role of the N363S and the BclI polymorphisms in patients with adrenal disease to evaluate their prevalence and the possible clinic and hormone correlatio...