Endocrine Abstracts

Recent studies indicating that normokaliemic primary aldosteronism (PA) is a more frequent cause of hypertension than previously expected led to an increased interest in biochemical screening strategies. We investigated biochemical diagnostic strategies used in different academic centres for patients documented in the German National Conn’s Registry. Data from 7 centres in 5 cities have been entered into a database by trained personnel. For analysis, results from 522 pati...

A genome-wide association study indicated a correlation between a locus at 5q32 and high aldosterone to renin ratio in subjects from KORA F4 survey. As we considered the genes in this locus for their potential relevance for the etiology of primary aldosteronism, we observed significantly higher expression of one of them, SLC26A2, in mouse adrenal glands, even though the gene’s function in the adrenal was not reported in the literature. Using the human adrenocortical cell ...

Medical treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is limited to common cytotoxic agents, which are usually given in combination with mitotane. Recently we have developed a novel therapeutic approach by coupling a monoclonal IGF1 receptor blocking antibody (1H7) to sterically stabilized liposomal doxorubicin (SSLD). 1H7 coupled liposomes showed in vitro high and significant cellular association and furthermore internalization in various human tumor cell lines as well a...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent curable form of hypertension. Hypokalemia is a late symptom of PA. Consequently, PA often is not diagnosed for many years. Our aim was to identify clinical and laboratory parameters in a large cohort of PA patients obtained during their first assessment.Methods: 96 consecutive patients prospectively studied since 2008 at the German Conn’s Registry Center in Munich were eligible for this s...

Background: Screening for primary aldosteronism (PA) using the aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) is recommended by clinical practice guidelines in patient groups with a high prevalence as the disease is reported by several authors in more than 10% of essential hypertensives (EH).Methods: Plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) and direct renin (DR) were measured using two novel automated chemiluminescence assays (IDS-iSYS; Boldon, UK) and compared to the S...

Recently, we investigated effects of the Tumor-VDA ASA404 in tumor models for neuroendocrine tumors of the gastroenteropancreatic system and adrenocortical carcinoma 24 hours after treatment of BON and NCIh295 tumor bearing mice with ASA404 (A), paclitaxel (P) or the combination (A+P). We detected for BON tumors extensive necrotic areas as well as a significant decrease in cell proliferation, increase of apoptotic cells and reduction of microvessels after A or A+P treatment wh...

Context: Unilateral adrenalectomy is the therapy of first choice in aldosterone producing adenoma (APA). Improvement of blood pressure (BP) and hypokalemia is achieved in the majority of patients. Because of hypoaldosteronism, hyperkalemia can develop in the postoperative course. Our aim was to analyze the frequency of hyperkalemia, to determine the cause of hypoaldosteronism and to assess the influence of preoperative mineralocorticoid antagonist (MRA) therapy at our center.<...

Background: Adrenal crisis (AC) is a life-threatening complication in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to classical 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD). AC was defined as an acute state of health impairment which required i.v. glucocorticoid administration and hospital admission. No data on AC over life-time in 21-OHD is available.Study design: In a retrospective study AC was studied following two approaches: a) questionnaire-based: 122 ad...

Background: Cushing’s syndrome is a disease that presents with clear symptoms and causes considerable harm to the body if left untreated, yet often remains undiagnosed for prolonged periods of time. Face-classification software might recognize typical changes of the face and thus aid in diagnosing the disease early as we have previously shown in the classification of acromegaly.Methods: Using a regular compact digital camera, we took frontal and sid...

Acromegaly is accompanied by increased morbidity and mortality. The delay between onset of first symptoms and diagnosis of the disease is 6 to 10 years. Acromegaly causes typical changes of the face. We hypothesized that face classification software might help distinguishing between subjects with and without acromegaly on regular photographs and, thus, might help improving early recognition of acromegaly.Methods: We took frontal and side photographs of t...