Endocrine Abstracts

Autoimmune thyroiditis is a common disease with different clinical aspects. It has not been established whether a rapid cellular destruction, with evolution towards hypothyroidism, may be associated with specific clinical phenotypes. To clarify this point, we studied 386 consecutive patients affected by autoimmune thyroiditis diagnosed within the previous 3 years: 193 patients (170 female and 23 males, age range 57.5±12.8, Group 1) were treated with L-thyro...

With the increasing use of thyroid ultrasound (US), the recognition of thyroid nodules in a large proportion of apparently healthy subjects has become common. Moreover, some autopsy series have shown that papillary cancer measuring 10 mm or less, the so-called papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC), is a very frequent incidental finding. Because PTMC is being increasingly discovered, it is important to ascertain whether PTMC may exhibit heterogenous clinical and pathological ...

Hepatocytes are both insulin sensitive and the primary site for synthesis of SHBG. Thus, it is possible that a condition of hepatic insulin resistance may impair hepatic synthesis of SHBG. In this study, we assessed SHBG circulating levels after 30 days of a very low-calorie ketogenic diet (VLCKD) based on high-biological value protein preparations diet (ISOMED) and natural food in a cohort of insulin-resistant obese male subjects. Moreover, we investigated the effects of expo...

Insulin is a major endocrine hormone able to regulate whole-body energy disposal and lipid metabolism. Particularly, insulin stimulates the renewal of the adipose tissue (AT) via activation of insulin receptors (IR) consisting of two splicing variants: a short isoform (IRa) involved in cell proliferation, and a long isoform (IRb) mainly implicated in metabolic responses. The contribution of these isoforms to the AT expansion is still poorly understood. We investigated the expr...

Low levels of testosterone and SHBG levels are often present in subjects with overweight and obesity; functional hypogonadism further alters the metabolic balance and may drag subjects in a sort of vicious cycle, reducing exercise and energy expenditure. The very low-calorie ketogenic diet (VLCKD) has been reported to rapidly reduce body weight, glycaemia and insulinemia, but its effects on total testosterone (TT) and SHBG levels are less clear. We thus aimed to evaluate the r...

Background: Although polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) constitutes a common endocrinopathy, there are several issues which confuse clinicians during everyday practice.Objective: To define the current status of knowledge of the full spectrum of PCOS among European endocrinologists.Methods: A detailed questionnaire comprising 41 items covering various aspects of diagnosis and management of women with PCOS was shared via web among memb...

Background: The balance between Adrenergic Receptor (AR) subtypes and Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP) is crucial for lipolysis. It was previously demonstrated that ANP is strongly lipolytic and we recently demonstrated that ANP is expressed and secreted by human pre-adipocytes. In previous studies, β-receptor density and lipolysis were higher in human visceral adipose tissue (HVAT) as compared with human subcutaneous adipose tissue (HSAT).Aims and ...

Objectives: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in pediatric patients has peculiar clinical, pathological, and molecular characteristics, making its management different from the adult patients. Our study aimed to evaluate the outcome and predictive factors for persistent disease in a large cohort of pediatric patients.Methods: We performed a multicentric Italian study, enrolling patients aged ≤18 years old, diagnosed with a DTC, since January 2...