Endocrine Abstracts

This study presents epidemiological data of 1512 Italian acromegalic patients who had been diagnosed from 1980 to 2002 and followed-up for more than 10 years, retrospectively collected by 24 tertiary referral centers. Data on co-morbidities and mortality were compared to those of the general Italian population obtained by the Italian National Institute of Statistic. At diagnosis median age of patients (41% M, 59% F) was 46 years, GH (mean±S.D.) 31±37 m...

The aim of the present study was to compare the assessment of BMD measured either by DEXA or by QUS in patients with AI. We evaluated 40 patients with AI, who underwent an evaluation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and bone densitometry measured either by DEXA (Hologic QDR 4500 W) at lumbar spine and at femur or QUS (Achilles Express) at the right foot. Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) was defined as abnormal response to at least 2 standard tests...

N363S polymorphism of the human glucocorticoid receptor gene has been detected in the heterozygous state in approximately 3–9% of general European population. This variant has been associated with increased sensitivity to glicocorticoids, increased insulin response to dexamethasone, a tendency towards lower bone mineral density, increased body mass index, and unstable angina. However, other reports found no associations with these pathological conditions. We assessed the ...

The effects of glucocorticoids are mediated by the glucocorticoid receptors (GR) and some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated to enhanced sensitivity (N363S, BclI) or reduced sensitivity (ER22/23EK) to glucocorticoids.Aim of the present study was: 1) to assess the frequency of N363S, BclI and ER22/23EK in 46 patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) and 73 patients with adrenal incidentaloma (AI) compared to 186 healthy subjects;...