Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Acromegaly secondary to an extrapituitary source of GH or GHRH is rare, usually associated with bronchial/thymic carcinoids, neuroendocrine enteropancreatic tumors or extrasellar somatotropinomas. Few series of acromegalic patients with negative pituitary imaging and lack of an ectopic source are reported in the literature.Methods: We report the clinical history and the laboratory and imaging results of an acromegalic woman with no clear ev...

Introduction: Although overall accuracy of fine needle aspiration (FNA) in identifying thyroid cancer is considered excellent, 20–30% of aspirates do not allow definitive diagnosis of malignancy. Proto-oncogene somatic mutations such as BRAFV600E in FNA strongly suggest the presence of malignancy. However, only few studies reported the use of circulating BRAFV600E-mutated alleles in plasma as an useful marker for non invasive diagnosis and follow up of this disease.<p...

Introduction: Ectopic ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome (ACS) may present with different clinical pictures and it may represent a diagnostic challenge.Methods: We describe the clinical presentation and the laboratory, imaging and pathologic findings of three patients with ectopic ACS.Results: Case 1. A 31-year-old man with a 1-year history of spontaneous rib and vertebral fractures was admitted to our hospital for ACS evaluati...

Hyponatraemia is the most frequent electrolyte disorder encountered in hospitalized patients. Hyponatraemia causes a wide variety of neurological signs and symptoms, depending on the rate and degree of serum sodium drop. The negative effects of low extracellular sodium concentrations ((Na+)) on neuronal cells are known to be due to the entry of fluids into the cells, as a consequence of reduced plasma osmolality. To date, it has not been investigated whether low (Na+) ...