Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Withdrawal of the medications prior to screening for primary aldosteronism is problematic, sometimes impossible and probably not necessary as the routine practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of aldosterone-to-renin ratio in hypertensive patients undergoing laboratory screening for primary aldosteronism without obligatory drug modifications.Methods: Plasma aldosterone and direct renin concentrations from 20 patien...

Objective: Previous studies indicated that two glucocorticoid receptor gene polimorphisms bclI and N363S (GC-S) are associated with increased sensitivity to glucocorticoids and two other polymorphisms 9β and ER22/23EK (GC-I) are related to decreased sensitivity to glucocorticoids. The aim of the study was to determine whether these genetic changes can effect on the occurence of steroid-induced adverse events.Methods: One hundred and fifty p...

Background: The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) constitutes a key hormonal system in the physiological and pathological regulation of blood pressure. In effort to understand complex and multifunctional aspects of this system, current biochemical approaches target to characterize and define its various components with angiotensin II being in the mainstream.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate concentrations of angiotensin II in hype...

In secondary adrenal insufficiency (SAI), the Synacthen test can give a false negative result. If disease is strongly suspected, an insulin hypoglycaemia test or Metyrapone (Metopirone) test should be carried out. Insulin test could be hazardous for patients with adrenal insufficiency (due to high risk of severe hypoglycaemia), so in our clinic we use overnight single-dose Metyrapone test. Although this test is easy to perform, measurement of 11-deoxycortisol concentration is ...

Introduction: Patients with connective tissue diseases are susceptible to the occurrence of side-effects of long term treatment with low-dose glucocorticoids as these medications often cannot be withdrawn due to exacerbation of the underlying disease. The new-onset of glucose metabolism impairment is not considered common in patients treated with low-dose glucocorticoids and the risk factors are thought to be the same as in general population: increasing age, obesity or family...