Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) is characterized by muscle paralysis, hypokalemia and thyrotoxicosis. Mutations occurring in the genes that encode for ion channels (CACNA1S and KCNJ18) are thought to be involved in its onset. TPP mainly affects male subjects (M:F=26:1), Asian (2% of Asian subjects with thyrotoxic suffer from TTP), while it is rare in Caucasian population (0.1-0.2% of thyrotoxic subjects). Signs and symptoms of thyrotoxicosis are often absent ...

X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH), representing about 80% of hypophosphatemic rickets, is an X-linked dominant disease due to inactivating mutations in the PHEX gene (located at Xp22.1) resulting in an excessive secretion of the phosphaturic hormone fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23). The effects are renal phosphate wasting and reduced active vitamin D synthesis leading to rickets, osteomalacia, bone deformities, odontomalacia, frequent dental abscesses and disproporti...

Hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) is the only hormone deficiency syndrome whose standard treatment is not based on the replacement of the missing hormone. Although most cases of postsurgical HypoPT can be effectively managed with the conventional use of oral calcium and active vitamin D (SOC therapy), some patients require very high doses and develop complications such as hypercalciuria, renal stones, nephrocalcinosis and ectopic calcifications. In the last few years, recombinant hu...

Hypoparathyroidism, deafness and renal dysplasia (HDR) syndrome, also known as Barakat syndrome, is a rare autosomal dominant disease characterized by the triad of hypoparathyroidism (H), deafness (D) and renal abnormalities (R). Its genetic cause is known to be the haploinsufficiency of the zinc finger transcription factor GATA3. This disorder exhibits a great clinical variability and an age-dependent penetrance of each feature. The most frequent manifestation is sen...

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disease mainly caused by a single parathyroid adenoma. Although the localization of the parathyroid adenoma is not a surgical criterion for parathyroidectomy (PTX), this is known to increase the cure rate and reduce the complication rate. Neck ultrasound and MIBI-scintigraphy are the first-line techniques to detect hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue, however, they have some limitations including the operator-dependent s...

Current clinical presentation of PHPT is mild disease with an increased risk of fragility fractures. PHPT predominantly occurs in postmenopausal women, who have an increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures due to ageing and loss of estrogen.Aims: To explore skeletal phenotypes in postmenopausal women affected by PHPT with a wide clinical and biochemical spectrum of disease.Patients: Postmenopausal (at least 5 years from last men...