Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and aims: Heart failure (HF) is a health problem with poor prognosis, despite many treatments available. Vitamin D is the pre-hormone of the active calcitriol (1,25(OH)2D3). It is involved in bone homeostasis, but recent studies suggest extraskeletal functions, including pleiotropic effects on cardiovascular system and a relationship between low levels of 25OHvitamin D and worse HF prognosis. The aims of the study were: 1) to define 25OH-D levels in the HF populat...

Adult-onset hypothyroidism is related to anxiety, depression, and impaired neurocognition. Guidelines from all professional societies recommend levothyroxine (LT4) monotherapy as the treatment of choice. However, ~15% hypothyroid patients do not achieve a satisfactory functional level despite TSH within the reference range. The beneficial effects of combining LT4 and liothyronine (LT3) to improve neuropsychiatric functions remains unclear. Recently, 3-iodothyronamine (T1A...

3-Iodothyronamine (T1AM) is a recently discovered compound which can be regarded as a novel hormone, since it is an endogenous relative of thyroid hormone with systemic distribution, which does not interact with thyroid hormone receptors, but rather with specific G protein-coupled receptors. T1AM has been reported to modulate energy metabolism, and in rodents chronic T1AM treatment has been associated with lipolysis and decreased body weight. T...

Serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25OHD) is considered the most reliable marker of vitamin D status. Adequate levels 25OHD of are necessary for pleiotropic effects of vitamin D, either skeletal or extra-skeletal. Traditional assays based on immunoassay often show an unsatisfactory accuracy and sensibility. A valuable alternative is Tandem Mass Spectrometry coupled to High Performances Liquid Chromatography (HPLC-MS-MS), that offers a good quantification accuracy, as the contribution...

Introduction: Hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) is a rare endocrine disease which is characterized by hypocalcaemia and undetectable or inappropriately low serum parathyroid hormone (PTH). Post-surgical HypoPT (PS-HypoPT) is the most common cause, caused by accidental parathyroid removal/injury during neck surgery. Conventional therapy with calcium and vitamin D analogues does not restore calcium homeostasis and patients with chronic PS-HypoPT complain with several complications. Fr...

Adult-onset hypothyroidism is associated with cognitive dysfunction, and a significant fraction of hypothyroid patients still shows persistent disturbances despite standard T4 replacement therapy. Experimental results showed that tissue levels of T4 metabolites, particularly T1AM, are decreased in hypothyroidism and remain low after T4 replacement. Thyroid hormones are important for the promotion of neurogenesis and neuron migration to different areas of the cerebral cortex, i...