Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Male hypogonadism is defined by low circulating testosterone level associated with signs and symptoms of testosterone deficiency. Although the bidirectional link between hypogonadism and cardiovascular disease has been clarified recently, the association between testosterone and chronic heart failure (CHF) is more controversial. Methods: We critically review published studies relating to testosterone, hypogonadism, and CHF and provide practic...

Objective: To investigate whether routine assessment of free testosterone improves the diagnostic accuracy of functional male hypogonadism.Methods: Total and free testosterone (calculated through SHBG assessment) were determined in 372 male patients (median age 44) referring to our department for sexual symptoms symptoms (188 patients) or infertility (184 men). Low total and free testosterone were defined as < 2.31 ng/ml and <63 pg/ml, respective...

Introduction: Amyloidosis due to Apo A-I Leu75Pro mutation is a rare form of hereditary amyloidosis with systemic involvement mainly of testicle, kidney and liver. This disease finds a wide prevalence in the province of Brescia (Northern Italy), which represents a geographic uniqueness for the spread of this amyloidosis form. Somefeatures of this disease have not yet been described.Purpose: To describe the frequency of organ damages in this amyloidosis f...

With HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy) introduction, HIV infection history has radically changed. Increased survival has led to new complications, including osteoporosis. The pathogenesis of osteoporosis in HIV patients is multifactorial: virus, HAART, smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, comorbidities, and hypogonadism can interact in bone depletion.Aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of osteoporosis, vertebral fractures (VF) ...