Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Only one case of hypophysitis secondary to Takayasu’s artheritis (TKA) has been described so far. We report the second case of a TKA presenting with a massive sellar and cerebrovascular infiltration.Clinical case: A 52 years-old female was referred to endocrine outpatient clinics after a brain MRI performed for a 2-year history of headaches, dizziness and general discomfort. Past medical history included hypertension and aspecific symp...

Introduction: TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas (TSHomas) are a rare cause of central hyperthyroidism, accounting for less than 1% of all pituitary adenomas, with a prevalence in the general population of 1-2 cases per million.Case Presentation: A 45-year-old female patient presented in 2009 with hypertension and tachycardia: blood tests revealed an inappropriately normal TSH with high fT3/fT4 levels and primary hyperaldosteronism. She declined further in...

Introduction: Milder forms of central hypothyroidism (CeH) are still challenging to diagnose due to absence of gold standards, wide variability of fT4 values and aspecificity of symptoms. We aimed to find diagnostic clues at diagnosis (pituitary lesion dimensions, other hormonal deficit) and during long-term follow-up, guiding the clinician to a precocious diagnosis of CeH.Study: 142 patients harbouring a pituitary adenoma with complete pituitary assessm...

Diagnosis of Central Hypothyroidism (CeH) is commonly given when FT4 concentrations are below the lower limit of normal range. A reduction in FT4 concentrations greater than 20% was proposed in ETA 2018 Guidelines as an unphysiological fluctuation indicating the onset of milder forms of CeH with FT4 still within the normal range. Similarly, TSH-index was proposed to quantify thyrotrope reserve, hence as a tool to detect patients at risk of CeH. Here we verified the performance...

Priming with sex steroids prior to stimulation tests for the diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) in peripubertal years remains controversial, though some evidence suggests its utility in improving the specificity of GH testing for the distinction between idiopathic GHD (IGHD) and constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP). However, few data are available on the final height (FH) of untreated CDGP patients. In order to better understand the usefulness of priming, we analyze...

The diagnostic approach to GH deficiency (GHD) in obese patients is complicated by the reduced spontaneous and stimulated GH secretion associated with overweight. A GH response to GHRH+arginine lower than 4.2 μg/l is currently considered indicative of GHD in obesity (Corneli et al., Eur J Endocrinol 2005). Aim of the study was to verify the diagnostic validity of this cut-off value by investigating the effect of acute pharmacological blockade of lipolysis on...

Background: As of December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly, therefore Governments from all over the world promoted a strategy of social confinement through a general lockdown in order to contain it. During the months following its introduction, many studies reported a significant increase in the incidence of idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP) throughout several countries, especially in girls.Purpose: The aim of our study was to co...