Endocrine Abstracts

Aim of this study is to present preliminary epidemiological data on a population of 1512 acromegalic patients attending 22 tertiary centers in Italy from 1980 to 2002. At our knowledge this is the first large–scale epidemiological Italian study on acromegaly. Gender was 624 (41.2%) men and 888 (58.8%) women. Mean age at diagnosis was 45±13 years, 43±13 for men and 47±13 for women. Median estimated duration of acromegaly before diagnosis was 74 months (range...

A high risk for small bowel (SB) tumors in acromegalic population has been reported in a cohort study (Baris D, 2002). SB lesions may be easily investigated by the recently developed videocapsule endoscopy (VCE). Aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of SB neoplasms by VCE in 14 acromegalic patients (Ac) in respect to 30 sex and age-matched control subjects and to correlate it with cancer risk factors and acromegaly-related parameters. Local Ethical committee approved ...

Background: The d3-growth hormone receptor (GHR) polymorphism is a common variant characterized by genomic deletion of exon 3 (d3) of the GHR gene. It could be linked to a better growth response to GH, but the findings are controversial. Due to the lack of IGF-I feedback on the tumoral GH secretion, acromegaly seems to be a good model to study functional characteristics of this polymorphism. Aim of the study was to investigate possible influences of d3-GHR on GH and IGF-I rela...

A common polymorphic variant of the GH receptor (exon-3 deletion, d3GHR) has been linked with increased response to recombinant human GH (rhGH) in some, but not all, GH deficient (GHD) and non-GHD patients. Aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the GHR genotype on the phenotype of GHD adults and on the metabolic effect of short- and long-term rhGH therapy, with particular focus on glucose homeostasis (1 year: n=100 and 5 years: n=50). Effects of rhGH...