Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) are one of the main effective drug used in acromegaly. Sludge and/or cholelithiasis development represents oneof the more common side effect. The aim of the study was to analyze the frequency of biliary adverse events (BAE) and possible predictive factors, to propose a work-up strategy for their management.Method: This is a single centre, longitudinalretrospective study; we enrolled 91 acromegaly patients during...

Background: When evaluating a patient for central adrenal insufficiency (CAI), there is a wide range of morning cortisol values for which no final conclusion on hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function can be drawn; in these cases, a stimulation test is required. Aim of this study was to develop an integrated model for the prediction of CAI when morning cortisol is in the grey zone, here defined as 40.0-160.0 μg/l.Methods: Overall, 119 pat...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify any predictive factors for need of high doses of cabergoline (CAB) in prolactinomas and to study any relationship between adverse events onset and CAB cumulative dose.Methods: Forty-two patients harboring resistant prolactinomas (High Dose group-HD; cabergoline dose ≥ 3.5 mg/week) were matched by gender, age and pituitary tumor diameter at diagnosis with subjects under standard doses (Standard Dose gro...

Introduction: First-generation SRL (fg-SRL) represent the treatment of choice in acromegaly patients with post-neurosurgical adenomatous remnant and GH-hypersecretion. Anyway, approximately 60% of patients do not achieve adequate disease control. The main predictors of resistance include male sex, young age, invasiveness of the lesion and its hyperintensity on T2-weighted MRI scans; but also, SSTR2 expression, the cytokeratin pattern, Ki-67 and the presence of AIP gene mutatio...

Introduction: The diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) in adults is based on a reduced GH response to provocative tests. The proportion of patients with low GH response to provocative tests increases with the number of other pituitary hormone deficiencies and several studies involving panhypopituitary patients have shown that under certain circumstances GH stimulation tests may be unnecessary to diagnose GHD.Objective: Aim of this study was to re-evaluate th...

Rationale: In the diagnosis of hypopituitarism, the glucagon stimulation test allows for the simultaneous and safe evaluation of the somatotropic and corticotropic axes; recent data have highlighted a stimulating action also on the neurohypophyseal secretion of arginine-vasopressin. This procedure involves the intramuscular or subcutaneous administration of 1-1.5 mg of glucagon based on the patient’s weight (respectively less or more than 90 kg). Nowadays no data are avai...