Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare disease of the pituitary gland. Both GH and IGF-1 levels are of key importance for monitoring of treatment effects in patients with acromegaly. In some patients, divergent results of measurements of these hormones are observed. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to estimate frequency of GH and IGF-1 inconsistencies in the population of patients with acromegaly included in the Polish Register of Acromegaly Patients, a...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is one of the causes of hypertension. Blood aldosterone and the aldosterone/direct renin concentration (DRC) are routinely used as a screening test for PA.Aim of study: Whether it matters if aldosterone concentration is determined in serum or plasma samples?Material and methods: 145 healthy males, five females (blood donors) were investigated. In all subjects blood was collected into two tub...

Introduction: Chromogranin A (CgA) is a main, nonspecific marker of neuroendocrine tumours (NET). There are various commercially assays for the measurement of CgA concentration in serum or plasma. These assays differ in analytical techniques (RIA, ELISA, CLIA), have different standardization, and use different antibodies which recognize different epitopes of CgA molecule.Aim of study: Our study was designed to confirm the noted earlier differences in CgA...

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumor that develops from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. In about 90% of cases, it is a benign tumor. Along with catecholamines, neuroendocrine cells of the adrenal medulla have the ability to produce various proteins and neuropeptides and secrete them into the blood. Among the known biologically active substances are: neuropeptide Y and human cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART).Purpose: ...

Introduction: Paragangliomas belong to the neuroendocrine tumours arising from autonomic nervous system. Various localizations, symptoms that can mimic a wide range of diseases and often unpredictable ability to metastasize are the reasons why paragangliomas pose a significant diagnostic challenge. More than one third of paragangliomas is associated with germline mutations –succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) subunit genes are among the most common susceptibility genes. SDHD wa...

Objective: According to some authors a higher incidence of subclinical hypercortisolaemia is found among patients with bilateral adrenal tumors with benign phenotype than with unilateral ones. The question is whether all patients with bilateral adrenal tumors and subclinical hypercortisolemia should undergo surgery and, if yes, which of the tumors should be removed first.Patients and methods: The investigated group consisted of 25 patients with benign bi...

Background: Primary aldosteronism constitutes the most common form of hormonal hypertension. However, it is often mistreated and widely underdiagnosed. Despite the great progress in laboratory technics of adrenal diseases, in the field of primary aldosteronism there is still a need for novel biomarkers that would clarify the diagnosis in equivocal cases. Adropin is a newly discovered protein that may play a role in glucose metabolism and the development of cardiovascular disea...

Introduction: Isolated corticotropic insufficiency of hypophysis with consecutive secondary adrenal insufficiency is a very rare disease. Literature notes difficulties in proper recognition and necessity of differential diagnosis, including among others chronic fatigue syndrome. In recent years, in Poland we observe more and more frequently setting this diagnosis – only on the basis of low ACTH an cortisol concentrations, despite of proper stimulation with 250 μg<sup...

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is a rare, usually benign tumor composed of neuroendocrine (chromaffin) cells of the adrenal medulla. It is the cause of secondary arterial hypertension. The biochemical diagnosis of a pheochromocytoma is based on the determination of concentration/excretion of catecholamine metabolites in blood or urine. The most sensitive biomarkers in the biochemical diagnosis of pheochromocytoma are plasma free methanephrines (metanephrine, normetanephrine an...

Introduction: 24-hydroxylase, encoded by a CYP24A1 gene, is a crucial enzyme entailed in catabolism of vitamin D. Loss-of-function mutations of CYP24A1 result in hypercalcemia, not adequately concomitant high levels of 1,25(OH)2D and low PTH levels. The variety of clinical manifestations depends on age – mutations can lead to fatal infantile hypercalcemia among neonates (typically precipitated by supplementation of vitamin D), whereas adults’ symptoms are usually mil...