Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer. It is characterized by a high rate of local recurrence after surgical resection as well as the occurrence of distant metastases. It mostly occurs in the elderly and the exact etiology is unknown. The most significant risk factors for its occurrence are exposure to ultraviolet light and the oncogenic effect of the Merkel cell polyoma virus.Aim: Demographic and clinica...

Aim: Functional neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) represent a specific diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Hormonal clinical syndrome can severely complicate clinical picture and affect treatment. Functional pancreatic NETs have been extensively studied. Our aim was to analyze functional lung NETs in terms of clinical characteristics and survival.Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 230 patients with lung NETs treated at our departme...

Objectives: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Aim of our study was to determine the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors using Framingham Scoring system (FSS) in PCOS and controls.Methods: FFS included age, value of cholesterol and HDL (mmol/L), smoking and systolic blood pressure (sysBP, mmHg). We also determined LDL (mmol/l), oxidized LDL (OxLDL, U/l) and triglycerides (mmol/l). We studied...

Introduction: Chromogranin A (CgA) is a major representative of the protein family named granins stored predominately in secretory granules of the diffuse neuroendocrine system. Circulating CgA serves as a biomarker of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), but its increased plasma concentration is present in various cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, renal and inflammatory diseases. Intra-granular and/or extracellular proteolysis of CgA generates a variety of biologically active fragme...

Introduction: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by hyperandrogenism, chronic oligo-/anovulation and polycystic ovarian morphology. Hyperandrogenism is a key diagnostic feature of PCOS and according to ESHRE/ASRM criteria it can be clinical and/or biochemical. SPISE index (single-point insulin sensitivity estimator index) is a new indicator of insulin sensitivity and a predictor of abnormal glucose metabolism. The aim of the research was to analyse association...

Introduction: Although intensive, repeated and perennial, physical stress of training generally does not represent a health hazard to professional athletes. Adaptation to such stress is presumed on multiple levels, but still not fully defined. Our aim was to analyze specificities of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response and adaptation to physical stress in professional athletes.Subjects and methods: We exposed 55 professional male athletes t...

Introduction: Metformin and oral contraceptive pills (OCP) are the most commonly prescribed medications among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The aim of this study was to compare effects of pill containing cyproterone-acetate (CPA) and metformin (METF) in women with PCOS during six months of follow-up.Methods: Group of 60 women with PCOS diagnosed by ESHRE/ASRM criteria were divided into 3 subgroups (20 women each), which were treated with d...

Introduction: Calcitonin secreting neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are rare and not well recognized. Due to many similarities, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate them from medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), which can hamper choice of proper therapy. We investigated our group of patients with this type of NET in terms of diagnosis and biology.Patients and Methods: We analyzed 38 patients with calcitonin secreting NET (5% of all our patients with NET)....

Most of adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are nonfunctional, although some of those demonstrate an autonomous subtle cortisol hypersecretion that could lead to increased risk for osteoporosis. Several polymorphisms of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene have been found to alter glucocorticoid tissue sensitivity. The aim of this study was toinvestigate whether subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) and BclI variant of the GR gene have an impact on bone mineral density (BMD) in wome...

Introduction: Prolonged exposure to stress has a modifying effect on activity of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This is a protective adaptation aimed to diminish potential deleterious effects of chronic hypercortisolism, and to diminish effects of acute exposure to heterotypic forms of stress. Our aim was to analyze modes of cortisol response to acute physical stress in groups of different stress categories and sex.Subjects and methods: Study ...