Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: In transsexualism, cross-sex hormone treatment (CHT) both improves and impairs several surrogate cardiovascular risk markers in female to male (FtoM). Few randomized trials on CHT with long follow-up and control group are available, and present evidence is inconsistent. We here assess changes in metabolic and cardiovascular risk after 12 months CHT compared with biological sex in FtoM GID.Methods: Prospective observational study, including ...

Introduction: Chronic hypercortisolism is marked by an increased cardiovascular risk pattern. Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammation that involves both innate and adaptive immunity. Glucocorticoids (GC) are immune-suppressors and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) possesses immune-modulatory activities. GC and ACTH may act in atherothrombotic inflammatory pathways.Aim: To analyze the immune cells pattern in endogenous Cushing syndrome (CS) in order t...

11-deoxycorticosterone (DOC) is an aldosterone precursor synthesized from progesterone and converted to corticosterone in the adrenal cortex. DOC overproduction due to an adrenal lesion is a very rare cause of mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension. The objective of this study is to provide the most relevant clinical features that clinicians dealing with patients presenting with the hallmarks of hypertension due to DOC-producing adrenal lesions should be aware of. We report a ...

Introduction: Previous studies indicate a high prevalence of HIV infection in the transgender population and associate it with sexual risk behavior, psychiatrical and socio-economic problems. Anyway, few data are available regarding other factors. We assessed the prevalence of HIV and other associated characteristics in a transgender population of Catalonia.Methods: Cross-sectional study including 234 transsexuals that started follow-up in a reference ce...

Introduction: Metyrapone blocks cortisol production by inhibiting 11ß-hydroxylation of 11-deoxycortisol, the last step of cortisol synthesis. Based on observational retrospective studies published over more than 50 years metyrapone is approved for the treatment of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in 14 European countries. PROMPT is the first prospective study to document the safety and efficacy of metyrapone using modern assay techniques.Desi...

Introduction: Current guidelines propose temozolomide (TMZ) as the first-line chemotherapy for aggressive pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs), but no clinical trials have been conducted and clinical experience in this context is limited.Patients and methods: A retrospective study of patients with aggressive pitNETs treated with TMZ was conducted by the members of the Neuroendocrinology Working Area of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrit...

Background: The most common tool to test malignancy in the study of thyroid nodules (TN) is ultrasound and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). However, the sensitivity and specificity of the methods and the effectiveness in thyroid cancer are limited; therefore new methods to study thyroid nodules are required. In this way our goal is to introduce hybrid diffuse optical instruments that are capable to measure and discriminate altered microvascular blood flow, blood volume an...

Medical treatment of acromegaly is currently performed through a trial-error manner using somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) as first-line drugs. Average SRLs response is seen in 50% of cases; subsequent drugs are indicated following clinical judgement. Some biomarkers either before or after surgical failure have been reported to predict SRLs response, including intensity in T2 weighted MRI, short acute octreotide test (sAOT), and different molecules such as SST2 and E-cadhe...