Endocrine Abstracts

The different balance in the sex hormones, androgens and estrogens, is a cardinal aspect of the biology of gender difference and plays a fundamental role in maintaining the physiological state at each age of life. However, the imbalance in sex hormones is involved in some metabolic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes, with androgens playing an interesting sexually dimorphic role. In particular, the bulk of evidence suggests that hyperandrogenism in women or hypogonadism in ...

We report of two sisters with hyperandrogenism, menstrual abnormalities, and severe insulin resistance. The elder sister was seen after puberty at age 21 and she was referred for the evaluation of hirsutism and polymenorrhoea; the younger was seen earlier in life, at age 15, for the evaluation of secondary amenorrhoea. In both of them, we performed the diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in accordance to the Rotterdam criteria. They also presented a lipodystrophic ph...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder among premenopausal women affecting up to 20% of the population. Even though androgen excess is the main diagnostic criterion for PCOS, the evaluation of hyperandrogenemia relies on methods with low accuracy and mainly able to measure total androgen amounts. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) allows high accuracy steroids measurement and if applied to saliva, it also allows the measurem...

Background: Many questions concerning Turner Syndrome (TS) remain unresolved, such as the long-term complications and, therefore, the optimal care setting for adults. Most controversials regard tumors. Very few data are available on thyroid carcinoma and no specific screening protocol of monitoring is advised in the current official guidelines. This long-term cohort study was primarily aimed at estimating the incidence and time to comorbid conditions along the life course, inc...

Endocrine clinical practice strongly relies on normative data for the assessment of hormonal imbalance. However, the generation of robust steroids reference intervals (RIs) remains a challenge. As the steroids circulating levels are influenced by many procedural aspects related to blood collection (time, fasting state) and physio-pathological factors, such as age, sex, stress and metabolic status, the need for partitioning RIs is mandatory. Furthermore, unbiased healthy, drug-...

The hormone assessment in saliva is emerging as a new valuable tool for clinical and research purposes. Salivary levels are supposed to reflect the free fraction of circulating steroids, thus representing a more informative indicator of their activity. Moreover, saliva collection is not stressful and does not require medical assistance, allowing reliable and multiple sampling in a day. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) technology offers high s...

In a previous study, we demonstrated that the concept of functional ovarian hyperandrogenism (FOH), as documented by the exaggerated 17OHP response to buserelin (GnRH-analogue) does not represent a specific feature of all women with PCOS, being present in less than half of PCOS and is a condition characterized by more severe hyperandrogenemia, glucose-stimulated B-cell insulin secretion and worse insulin resistance. INSL3 is produced in the Leydig cells and at reduced levels i...

Obesity is strictly connected with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). However, we still do not know whether a form of PCOS secondary to obesity exists or whether obesity exacerbates manifestations of the syndrome. To answer this question we contacted seventy obese patients with PCOS that attended our Endocrinology Unit in the last 3 years and that lose weight after at least 6 months of dietary treatment. Sixty-five out of 70 patients agreed to take part to the study and gave th...

Among the uncertainties surrounding the etiology of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) the role of increased peripheral cortisol metabolism has become interesting, particularly in relationship to the pathogenesis of adrenal hyperandrogenism. The patways of cortisol metabolism include irreversible inactivation of cortisol by 5α- and 5β-reductase. To evaluate the association of 5α- and 5β-reductase activity with adrenal hyperandrogenism in PCOS, we recruited 90...

Aim: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in a cohort of young Mediterranean women with PCOS in reproductive age and to evaluate the association of the MS with clinical and biochemical parameters.Setting: Among 200 PCOS (17-31 years) criteria of MS in accordance with the “NCEP-ATPIII” were used to construct 3 groups: no one criteria, 1 or 2 criteria and 3 or more criteria (affected by MS). All p...