Endocrine Abstracts

The transsphenoidal surgical technique has dominated ever since Jules Hardy introduced microsurgery with the use of an operation microscope in the 1960s. Since the 1990s, endoscopic techniques have alternatively been applied in transsphenoidal surgery. Both microscopy and endoscopy should be accepted as established techniques which can often be used in a complementary fashion. It must be understood that microsurgery and endoscopy differ only in that they use different optical ...

Objective: Evaluation of aftercare, medical therapy and remission rate in Cushing’s disease (CD) and acromegaly (AC).Methods: Of 58 CD and 83 AC patients operated over 10 years were carefully evaluated. The patients received a disease-related questionnaire and were invited for a follow-up at the outpatient clinic of the Department of Neurosurgery. 33 CD and 52 AC patients returned the questionnaire, 25 CD and 37 AC patients participated personally. ...

Objective: Cushing’s disease (CD) and acromegaly (AC) are associated with psychological and psychiatric problems. Both pathologies cause a severe impairment in quality of life (QoL) that can persist even if biochemical remission and cure are achieved. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of the current disease status (remission vs. no remission) on neurocognitive function and QoL in treated CD and AC patients. The second objective was to determine predict...

Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the time-to-diagnosis interval in patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) and acromegaly (AC), to assess factors that promote early disease detection and to investigate the medical fields diagnosing the pathologies.Design: Case-record retrospective study.Patients: CD and 52 AC patients operated between June 1998 and December 2007.Measurements: All patients rece...

Objective: It is still unknown how pituitary adenomas grow over years and whether growth kinetics follow a distinct growth model. Definition of adenoma growth kinetics would substantially enhance knowledge of biological behaviour. The objective of this study was to define a growth model for non-functioning pituitary adenomas.Methods: Fifteen patients who had five or more serial high-quality examinations with magnetic resonance images or computerized tomo...

The tumorigenesis of Cushing’s disease is characterized by somatic mutations in the USP8 gene in almost half of the cases. USP8 encodes for ubiquitin specific protease 8, a deubiquitinase that rescues proteins involved in the regulation of ACTH synthesis in corticotroph cells. In the present study we tested the antisecretory and antiproliferative efficacy of a commercially available specific USP8 inhibitor (IC50 3.1 μM USP8; >90 μM USP7) in immortalized muri...