Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Transphenoidal surgery is still the best initial therapy for Cushing’s disease (CD), with a high probability of cure and few risks or complications. However, pharmacotherapy has a role as primary or adjunctive therapy: when surgery is delayed, in case of postoperative persistence or recurrence of hypercortisolism, or while waiting for radiotherapy effectiveness. Ketoconazole, a steroidogenesis inhibitor, is nowadays the main drug used to CD control by reducing...

Background: Graves’ Disease (GD) is one of the most common organ specific autoimmune disorders, being characterized by an abnormal production of stimulating autoantibodies to the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR). Some studies demonstrated that genetic polymorphisms in certain cytokines, namely interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), are associated with a greater susceptibility of developing GD. Our aim was to evaluate ...

Introduction: Hypothyroidism caused by autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) is a disease that can originate physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms. Quality of life (QoL) and psychopathologial symptoms in thyroid diseases and its relation with thyroid function remains unclear. In hypothyroidism there is a discussion about the normal range of TSH and Free T4 values and in which way its fluctuation influences the patient in its daily activities.Objective: ...

Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) and its related physical and psychological symptomatology is an important factor when we treat Graves’ disease.Objective: To analyze the QoL and physical and psychological symptomatology of patients with hypothyroidism after definitive treatment of Graves’ disease.Methods: We evaluated 16 patients with hypothyroidism that previously had Graves’ disease. These patients were submitte...

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is one of the major secondary causes of hypertension. The classic triad of pheochromocytoma symptoms of headache, sweating and tachycardia is not present in a high percentage of patients and is sometimes diagnosed as incidentaloma or atypical presentations.Case report: The authors present a 56-year-old man, with no known diseases, referred to Endocrinology evaluation by incidentaloma of the right adrenal gland, from the Pne...

Introduction: Secondary causes of diabetes refer to a category in which diabetes is associated with other diseases. They are thought to constitute less than 2% of the total cases of diabetes.Case report: A 56 year-old caucasian man, with no relevant medical history, presented to the Emergency Department with fatigue, polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia and involuntary weight loss (6 kg in two weeks). He was hemodynamically stable and exhibited a glycaemia o...

Introduction: The endocrine system is often affected in the course of HIV infection. However, hypopituitarism and diabetes insipidus are uncommon disorders in these patients and have been related to drugs, infections of the central nervous system and neoplastic infiltration, in extremely rare cases.Case report: We present a case of a 42-year-old man with HIV infection known since 2005, but undergoing antiretroviral therapy only since 2010 (emtricitabine/...

Background: Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII), alongside multiple daily injections (MDI) are the most frequent therapeutic of type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM). We aimed to evaluate the effects of the transition from MDI to CSII in the treatment of type 1 DM.Patients and methods: This retrospective longitudinal study analysed patients that received treatment with CSII from 2006 to 2014. Our sample had 85 patients, 35 male (41.2%) and 50 female ...

Introduction: The incidence of glucose metabolism alterations during the follow-up of surgically treated insulinomas is largely unknown. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence, and the clinical characteristics, of diabetes and prediabetes in this population.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the cases diagnosed as insulinomas in a Central Hospital in Portugal in the period between January 1980 and December 2015.Results: We identif...

Introduction: Insulinomas are pancreatic endocrine tumors originating in the beta cells, characterized by hypoglycemia resulting from insulin hypersecretion.Objectives: To characterize the demography, the clinical features, imagiological findings and pathological evaluation of the cases of insulinomas identified in the previous 35 years at São João Hospital.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the cases diagnosed as insul...