Endocrine Abstracts

Before and during pregnancy the thyroid gland and gonadal axes interact continuously. During reproductive life, normal levels of thyroid hormones are required for the maturation of oocytes. Hypothyroidism influences ovarian function by decreasing levels of sex-hormone-binding globulin and increasing the secretion of prolactin. In women of reproductive age, L-thyroxine therapy reverses hypothyroidism improving fertility and avoiding the need for use of assisted r...

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a fibro-inflammatory, immune-mediated, systemic disease usually presenting with tumefactive lesions and a subacute onset mimicking malignancy. A subset of autoimmune thyroid pathologic conditions can be incorporated in the spectrum of IgG4-RD. In some cases of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (HT) a rich IgG4-positive plasma cell infiltration has been described, and a marked storiform fibrosis is typical of the fibrotic variant of HT (FVHT) and of...

Background: Graves’ disease (GD) female patients in remission after a full course of methimazole (MMI) therapy are at risk for a relapse of hyperthyroidism during the post-partum (PP) period, but whether this relapse may display any peculiarity is still unknown.Aim: To compare GD patients undergoing a relapse of hyperthyroidism either in the PP period or not.Subjects and methods: Fourty-three female patients of childbearing ag...

Antipituitary antibodies (APA) are frequently present in patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS) but their role in predicting autoimmune hypophysitis (LYH) is still discussed.To evaluate the predictive value of APA investigated by immunofluorescence for the occurrence of pituitary autoimmune dysfunction when considering together some methodological characteristics as immunostaining pattern and antibody titers, we studied 149 APA positive an...