Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Observations in patients with GH disturbances and in normal populations have suggested that GH/IGF1 activity could have anti-inflammatory effects. On the other hand, in vitro studies have shown that IGF1 may stimulate the immune system.Methods/design: The study population consisted of 12 healthy volunteers (mean age 36, range 27–49 years) treated with GH for 3 weeks (1st week 0.01 mg/day, 2nd 0.02 mg/day, 3rd 0.03 mg/day) and su...

Background: GH secretion and action change with age in adult human subjects, and this play an important role in substrate metabolism in aging subjects. Targeted disruption of the GH receptor in mice extends longevity, and this is associated with decreased expression of apoptosis-related genes including caspase-9 (CASP9) in skeletal muscle.Aim: To study DNA methylation of putative GH target genes in skeletal muscle of adult male subjects in relation to bo...

Aim: To quantify the effect of pegvisomant on glucose homeostasis, lipid profile and disease activity in acromegaly.Methods: 5 Patients with active acromegaly after surgery, radiotherapy and somatostatin analogs were included. Somatostatin analogs were withdrawn 6 weeks before starting pegvisomant and it was initially administered subcutaneously at doses of 10 mg daily. Doses were progressively increased every 3 to 4 weeks until IGF1 normalization. Gluco...

Secondary hormonal deficiency (SHD) is common in patients presenting with nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFA). NFA can either stain for various hormones or be non-hormone staining on immunocytochemistry. To date, no study has assessed the association between staining pattern of NFA and pattern of SHD at presentation. The Halifax Neuropituitary Program has been prospectively collecting comprehensive data on all neuropituitary patients in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada ...

Introduction: Clinical symptoms in craniopharyngioma have been repeatedly described in the literature, but few studies have addressed the issue of acute-onset symptoms in children or adults. Refinements of diagnostic procedures and altered scanning routines over the last two decades may in theory have affected patterns of clinical presentation.Objective: To study the clinical phenotype of patients with newly diagnosed craniopharyngioma, with focus on var...