Endocrine Abstracts

Exon 1 of AR gene contains a variable number of CAG triplets, which encode a polyglutamine stretch of variable length in the N-terminal domain of the receptor. Experimental evidence has accumulated in demonstrating that the length of this stretch influences AR transcriptional activity and therefore modulates target organs responsiveness to androgens. Aim of our study was to evaluate CAG repeats length [(CAGr)n] in various conditions hypothetically influenced by AR function. 35...

Hyperinsulinemia has been associated to an increased risk of colorectal cancer and adenomas, while higher serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 and folate seem to reduce the development of colonic lesions in general population. Acromegalic patients have an increased risk of colonic tumors and an association between higher fasting insulin levels and risk of colonic adenomas has been previously demonstrated. No data are available about the influence of vitamin D and folate-homocysteine le...

Active acromegaly is associated with significant comorbidity and reduced quality of life. Cross-sectional studies have shown that quality of life did not significantly change in long-term cured acromegalic patients. However, the effect of medical treatment on the quality of life in the short term is unknown.We evaluated the quality of life by a disease-specific questionnaire in a longitudinal study before and after a 6-month course with somatostatin anal...

To investigate the blood pressure profile (BP) in active acromegaly and the effect of medical treatment of acromegaly on BP circadian rhythm, we studied 21 acromegalics before and after 3–60 months of treatment with somatostatin analogs (15/21) or pegvisomant (5/21) or both (5/21). Ambulatory 24-h BP was recorded. The 24-h mean BP (MBP), the mean systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), the day-time (day) and night-time (night) MBP, SBP and DBP and the 24-h mean heart ra...

Introduction: Acromegaly is associated with alterations of glucose metabolism. The effect of somatostatin analogues (SMS) and pegvisomant (PEG) on glucose metabolism is still argument of debate.Study design: The purpose of this historical-prospective study was to compare, in a cohort of 47 patients with active acromegaly, the effects of SMS and PEG alone or in combination on glucose metabolism. All subjects were evaluated at baseline and at least 6 month...

Hypogonadism is still a poorly-defined clinical entity. Recently approved and published guidelines to diagnosis and treatment of hypogonadism claim the necessity of accompanying biochemical thresholds with clinical symptoms and monitoring under treatment a specific aspect of the ‘wide spectrum’ hypogonadism (libido, erection, bone mass, muscle strength and so on). This is due both to different levels of thresholds for different tissues and to individual variability.<...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common motor neurone disorder in human adults. Scanty data on endocrine abnormalities have been reported. Aim of the present study was to investigate the GH-IGF-I axis in ALS patients.22 ALS patients (12 men and 10 women), aged 46–77 years, performed GHRH+arginine test: blood samples for GH were collected at baseline, 30 and 60 minutes; IGF-I was determined at baseline. The control group consisted of 2...

Prolactin-secreting (PRL) adenomas are about 40% of all pituitary adenomas. The most important clinical symptoms of PRL excess are gonadal and sexual dysfunction as a result of tumor expansion in patients with macroadenomas. Medical therapy of prolactinomas relies on the use of dopamine agonists which induce normalization of PRL levels and shrinkage of the tumor mass in the majority of patients. The present study evaluated whether doses of dopamine agonist inducing normalizati...

Introduction: AIT develops in 15–20% of patients receiving amiodarone. Patients with persistent thyrotoxicosis or those with instable cardiac function, may be candidate for thyroidectomy; however, thyrotoxicosis and underlying cardiovascular disease may increased surgical risk.Matherials and methods: We retrospectively selected 23 AIT patients treated with a total thyroidectomy, from January 2000 to December 2010 [19 men, 4 women; mean (+SD), age 61...

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) and growth hormone deficiency (GHD) are both associated with alterations of bone metabolism.GH secretion is frequently impaired in PHP patients; thus GH/IGF-I system alterations could be involved in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis.In the present study 50 post-menopausal women with PHP were evaluated by GH response to GH-releasing hormone (GHRH)+arginine (ARG) test and femoral neck bone mineral den...