Endocrine Abstracts

Similarly as in autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD), diagnosed in about 80% of primary adrenal insufficiency, idiopathic isolated secondary adrenal insufficiency (ISAI) seems to have an autoimmune origin.Within the last 35 years we have registered in our Department 325 patients with ISAI (F/M ratio 10.9) aged 17–87 years. In comparison, we have in our registry 241 patients with AAD, collected within over 40 years. The diagnosis of ISAI was based...

Objective: The origin of idiopathic isolated secondary adrenal insufficiency (IISAI) is uncertain, however autoimmunity seems to be the most probable cause. Within last eight years the initial number of about 100 such cases, increased in our registry by 250%. We searched for features of autoimmune diseases in our group of patients to prove autoimmune etiology in a majority of these patients.Materials and methods: The material consisted of 260 patients wi...

Background: Conventional glucocorticoid replacement therapies result in unphysiological variation in plasma cortisol levels; concern has been raised regarding long-term metabolic consequences. Glucocorticoid replacement is technically feasible by continuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion (CSHI), which can mimic the normal diurnal cortisol rhythm. The aim of this study was to compare insulin sensitivity in patients with Addison’s disease (AD) on CSHI vs three daily d...

Background: Conventional glucocorticoid replacement therapy is unphysiological, and does not restore quality-of-life in AD. Here we evaluated the dosing regimens and glucocorticoid metabolism in 10 patients undergoing 24 h sampling during oral replacement therapy and CSHI.Design, Subjects, Measurements: We set up a cross-over randomised multi-centre clinical trial to evaluate dosage and effects of CSHI in 40 Scandinavian AD patients, comparing 3 months o...

Autoimmunity is the most frequent cause of Addison’s disease (AD). Isolated secondary adrenal insufficiency (ISAI) in patients not treated with corticosteroids seems to be an autoimmune disease too. In the registry of the Department of Endocrinology in Warsaw we have 328 patients with AD and 305 patients with ISAI. Autoimmune AD was diagnosed in 262 of 328 patients (77%) and in 217 of them (83%) some associated autoimmune disorders were found, while in the group with ISAI...

Objective: To characterize patients with GH deficiency associated with lymphocytic hypophysitis (LyH).Method: Patients with a diagnosis of LyH were identified in the KIMS database. The responsible clinicians were asked to confirm the diagnosis and to provide more detailed information on the patient by filling in a questionnaire.Results: One hundred and fifty patients with a diagnosis of LyH were identified in the database and 100 c...

Studies on autoimmune Addison’s disease (AD) have a long tradition, while knowledge on idiopathic isolated secondary adrenal insufficiency (SAI), which also seems to be caused by autoimmunity, is not so popular. Our presentation aimed at comparing two groups of patients: 1) 238 patients with AD (183 women, F/M=4.3), aged 8–61 years at time of diagnosis and 2) 301 patients with SAI (269 women, F/M=8.4), aged 17–87 years at time of diagnosis. Maximum time of durat...

Background: Conventional glucocorticoid replacement therapy in patients with Addison’s disease (AD) is unphysiological with possible adverse effects on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. Physiological amounts of glucocorticoids are required for normal GH production and release and a chronically raised cortisol level, suppresses the secretion of GH with possible metabolic and cardiovascular consequences. The diurnal cortisol profile can likely be restored by continu...

The Liège Acromegaly Survey is a cross-sectional study on acromegalic patients, developed as an in-house tool in Liège, then extended to other Europeans participating centers. The database differentiates itself from national and multinational registries by adopting a goal oriented approach and it was conceived following a list of open questions on acromegaly. After an initial test run in Liège, the database installation started on mid-March 2010. Thirteen other ...

Autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD) is a rare, highly heritable endocrinopathy with an estimated λsibling (ratio of risk to a sibling vs the unrelated background population) of 160–210. The majority of the genetic risk to AAD has yet to be accounted for. We have used a tag-SNP approach to seek association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the GATA3 gene and autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD). 2001 AAD cases and 1898 controls were included in ...