Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Vitamin D has a pleiotropic effect on the human body. Besides its classical function as a regulator of calcium and phosphorus metabolism, it influences the secretion of other hormones, modulates the immune response and regulates cell proliferation and differentiation. Because women in twin pregnancies have higher metabolic needs, it can be expected that they might have higher risk of vitamin D deficiency.Aim of the study and method: The aim is...

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...

Background: Vitamin D is a dietary micronutrient responsible for calcium and phosphorus metabolism and multiple extraskeletal actions. The assessment of vitamin D status is commonly based on measurement of 25(OH)D total concentration in serum. However, the usage of LC-MS/MS analytical technique allows to reliably assess a panel of vitamin D metabolites in serum or plasma, which may help to investigate the metabolic paths of vitamin D, especially in populations at risk of defic...

Introduction: Hormone macromolecules are complexes of hormones with other compounds, most often with IgG immunoglobulin. They show variable immunoreactivity in immunochemical tests (IRMA, ELISA, CLIA, ECLIA) and usually have a weak biological effect. They can interfere with immunological assays of various hormones. Some known hormone macrocomplexes are: BB-PRL (24% - 34%), macro-TSH (0.6% - 1.2%) and very rare macromolecules of various hormones: calcitonin, PTH, insulin (singl...

Introduction: Saliva is an interesting alternative to blood in clinical evaluation of endocrine function. Certain advantages of saliva collection must be considered, when comparing with conventional blood sampling. Vital arguments are that procedure is easy, non-invasive and stress-free. The studies on correlation between salivary and serum thyroid hormones are scarce and contradictory. The goal of our research was to assess if salivary thyroid hormone levels reflect serum con...