Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Impaired health related quality of life (QOL) in patients in long-term remission of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) has previously been reported. However, the major determinants of the impaired QOL have not yet been established.Aim: To investigate QOL of patients in long-term remission of CS treated in our hospital (1969–2007) and to investigate the influence of the etiology of CS, treatment strategy, coexistent hypopituitarism and glucocor...

Introduction: Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism is frequently observed in morbidly obese men, due to aromatase-dependent conversion of androgens to estrogens. The clinical impact of this sex hormone imbalance is unknown.Aim: Evaluate the clinical effects of aromatase inhibition in obesity-related hypogonadism.Methods: Double-blind, placebo-controlled, 6-month trial in severely obese men (BMI>35 kg/m2) with obesity-relate...

Objective: Treatment with glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids has changed congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) from a fatal to a chronic lifelong disease. As a result of long-term treatment, including chronic (over-)treatment with glucocorticoids, patients with CAH may develop an adverse cardiovascular risk profile. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cardiovascular risk profile of adult CAH patients.Patients and measurements: In this case...

Infertility is a serious problem in female as well in male CAH patients. The most important cause of male infertility in CAH patients is the presence of testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART). The reported prevalence in adult CAH patients is up to 96%. TART have no malignant features but because of their typical localization near the mediastinum testis, longstanding compression of the seminiferous tubules may lead to obstructive azoospermia and irreversible damage of testicular...

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) is the most prevalent manifestation of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1). Surgery is the preferred treatment but which type of surgery offers the best chance of cure combined with the lowest risk of postoperative hypoparathyroidism is still uncertain.Aims: Identifying the optimal surgical technique for MEN1 related pHPT. Describing the course of postoperative hypoparathyroidism. To see if a genotype...

Background: Loss of autophagy protein ATG16L1 enhances endotoxin-induced interleukin 1β (IL1β) production. IL1β has been found to have antineoplastic effects in thyroid malignancies. We hypothesized that a missense polymorphism in ATG16L1 autophagy gene (Thr300Ala) results in changes in the function of the molecule and influences susceptibility to and prognosis of epithelial cell derived thyroid carcinoma (TC).Objective: i) To assess the f...

Context: More reliable parameters than cortisol are needed for assessing correct catheter positioning during adrenal vein sampling (AVS). Plasma metanephrine represents one such alternative.Objective: To determine the utility of adrenal venous (AV) plasma concentrations of metanephrine to establish correct catheter positioning during AVS.Design and methods: We included 86 AVS procedures: 52 ACTH-stimulated and 34 non-stimulated seq...

Objective: To assess the influence of use of long-acting somatostatin analogs on long-term health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in relation to disease control in patients surgically-treated for acromegaly.Design: Cross-sectional study in two University Medical Centers in The Netherlands.Patients: One hundred and eight patients (47 m/61 f, mean age 54±11 years) with a minimal follow up period of 1 year after pituitary surger...

Introduction: Cushing’s disease (CD) is characterized by various symptoms, amongst which fatigue, muscle weakness and depression. The chronic state of hypercortisolism severely impairs quality of life (QoL). In addition, the physiological cortisol diurnal rhythm (CDR) is disturbed in CD. Transsphenoidal surgery is the primary treatment for CD, but long-term remission rates are disappointing. We performed a prospective trial in which stepwise medical treatment was applied ...

IntroductionTP53 mutations have been rarely reported in pituitary tumours. Recently two exploratory exome sequencing studies have identified somatic TP53 mutations in a small number of functional corticotroph tumours (6/18 and 4/10) with USP8 wild type (wt) status, suggesting that they may be more frequent than previously thought. Nevertheless, the clinical impact of those mutations is still unknown.AimTo det...