Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with metastatic carcinoid disease confer a risk for carcinoid syndrome, characterized by hemodynamic instability and syncope. While the physiologic mechanisms linking carcinoid tumor metastases to impaired blood pressure regulation are not well understood, this may be attributed to changes in autonomic function, which is a key regulator of blood pressure. We hypothesize that metastatic carcinoid disease induces autonomic dysfunction. To test this, we longi...

Background: Neuroendocrine tumors that release prostaglandins and biogenic amines that can impact cardiac function. In consequence, patients with carcinoid liver metastases are at risk for carcinoid heart disease. This is primarily characterized by fibrosis in the heart that leads to plaques on the valvular cusps, leaflets and walls of the atrium and ventricles leading to a thickened right heart with regurgitation. Interestingly, 50-80% of patients with carcinoid heart disease...