Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CH) or, as previously named, Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia (HH), constitutes a major cause of persistent and recurrent hypoglycemia, especially in the neonatal period, showing notable phenotypical heterogeneity among affected subjects. Mutations in genes implicated in insulin release, represent the majority of the cases of CH. Activating mutations of the Glucokinase gene (GCK) are responsible for mild forms of hypoglycemia usual...

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) present the treatment of choice in patients with previously poorly controlled acromegaly.Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of acromegalic patients enrolled in the Network of Excellence for Neuroendocrine Tumors Munich and treated with the SSA lanreotide.Results: Fifty-six acromegalic patients (25 females; mean age 59 years; 33 with macroadenoma) switched to lanreotide from pre...

Introduction: Craniopharyngioma is an insidious disease that leads to profound comorbidities. Outcomes of the disease have been studied in depth, but there is little data comparing pituitary comorbidities of cases diagnosed in recent years opposed to before. We hypothesized that advances in endocrinologic diagnostics and neurosurgery have led to a lower degree of comorbidities.Methods: We investigated 54 patients with adult-onset craniopharyngioma (28 ma...

Introduction: SUB:Pituitary – Clinical (Generously supported by IPSEN)It is still unclear whether obesity in craniopharyngioma (CP) is caused by disorders in food regulation or by changes in mood or activity due to depression or sleepiness leading to a decrease in energy consumption. We compared CP to patients with non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA) by using standardized questionnaires to clarify this question.Methods: We compared 31 ...

Objectives: Our aim was to assess health-related quality of life in patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) and patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA).Methods: We assessed patients with CD and with NFPA treated at our outpatient units. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed with the SF-36, a widely used generic measure of health status and the CushingQoL, a newly developed disease generated questionnaire to evaluate HRQoL ...

Objectives: It is known that patients with pituitary adenomas, especially acromegaly, frequently suffer from pain syndromes such as headache and arthralgia. Whether pain exists and to what extent in Cushing’s disease (CD), reflecting chronic cortisol excess, is not clear. We hypothesized that pain patterns should be also altered and investigated pain laterisation, clinical characteristics, phenotypes as well as underlying predictors.Methods: In a cr...

Objectives: Acromegaly is associated with elevated cardiovascular morbidity. Medical treatment of acromegaly does not only lead to a normalisation of the somatotroph axis, but can also negatively influence cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we evaluated cardiovascular risk markers (glucose, HbA1c, triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, lipoprotein a, homocystein, CRP) in relation to biochemical control and m...

Objective: Diagnosis of acromegaly is often delayed up to 10 years after disease onset despite obvious visual changes, bone and soft-tissue deformities. We hypothesized that a reduced sense of body perception in acromegaly, possibly mediated by psychiatric or cognitive alterations, might contribute to the delayed initiation of a diagnostic work-up.Design: Cross-sectional study.Methods: We investigated perceived body image ...

Background: In acromegaly, few in vivo data exist on changes of the brain parenchyma as a pathology caused by systemically elevated levels of GH and IGF-1. This is in contrast to neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, cognitive impairment, personality changes and pain syndromes that accompany the condition. We aimed at measuring brain tissue volumes and white matter pathology in acromegaly.Methods: Forty-three patients (age 54±14 years...

Introduction: Clinical presentation of pituitary adenomas frequently involves pain, particularly headache, probably due to both structural and functional properties of the tumour.Design: In a retrospective analysis, we investigated clinical characteristics of pain in 277 patients with pituitary disease (n=81 acromegaly; n=50 Cushing’s disease; n=86 prolactinoma; n=60 non-functioning pituitary adenoma). Specific pa...