Endocrine Abstracts

Hypogonadism is difficult to confirm with standard assays. A large proportion of testosterone (T) is bound to sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and is biologically inert. Accurate measures of free and biological-available-testosterone (Bio-T) are largely unavailable. In this study we compared formulae calculated from the total testosterone (TT) and SHBG in their ability to predict hypogonadism and/or Bio-T.TT and SHBG were determined by ELISA and Bio-T...

BackgroundHeart failure is a syndrome of vaso-constriction and hormone abnormalities. There is an excess of catabolic and vasoconstrictor hormones and a relative deficiency of anabolic hormones. Vaso-dilating drugs improve symptoms in heart failure and inhibition of some catabolic / vasoconstrictor hormones improves prognosis. We aimed to study the direct vascular effects of testosterone resistance arteries from men with heart failure.Methods6 resistance arteries w...

Background. Males with coronary disease have lower levels of endogenous testosterone than unaffected males. It is not known if low testosterone is a cause, effect or an epi-phenomenon of ischaemic heart disease.We hypothesised that androgen deficient men treated surgically with complete resolution of their symptoms would have a higher subsequent testosterone than men with persistent angina.Methods. Subjects were recruited after angiography. All subjects were biochemically ...

Background: Testosterone treatment has been shown to increase exercise capacity in men with chronic heart failure but the mechanism of benefit is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the acute haemodyamic effects of testosterone in men with heart failure.Methods: Twelve men with stable heart failure (age 62.8 (8.8)years; ejection fraction 30.9 (6.3)% (NR>60%)) were enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over study. Cardiac o...

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is associated with maladaptive and prolonged neurohormonal and pro-inflammatory cytokine activation causing a metabolic shift favouring catabolism, vasodilator incapacity, and loss of skeletal muscle bulk and function. In men, androgens are important determinants of anabolic function and physical strength and also possess anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory properties. We conducted a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial of testosterone ...

Testosterone has immune-modulating properties and current in-vitro evidence suggests that testosterone may suppress the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF alpha), interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-6 and potentiate the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. We report a randomised single-blind placebo-controlled crossover study of testosterone replacement (Sustanon 100) versus placebo in 27 men (age 62+-9years) with symptomatic and...

We(1) and others have established that men with coronary heart disease (CHD) have lower serum testosterone levels than men with normal coronaries. Hypotestosteronaemia is associated with dyslipidaemia, visceral obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension and a prothrombotic state.The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hypogonadism in men with CHD proven by either greater than 70 per cent stenosis of one or more epicardial or greater than 50 per cent stenosi...