Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A significant body of literature supports that 25(OH)vitD deficiency is associated with insulin resistance. We studied the prevalence of 25(OH)vitD deficiency across the spectrum of glucose metabolism.Design: The study participants (441 total, 362 females (82.1%) and 79 males (17.9%)) had a mean age (±S.D.) of 64.59 (±9.44) years, range: 32–92 years. The study population was divided into two groups: Individuals...

A common polymorphism of the ERβ gene (AluI) located in 3′-UTR of exon 8 has been shown to be associated with clinical features of altered estrogen action in tissues where this gene is expressed. It has recently been shown that GnRH neurons express ERβ, indicating that this receptor may participate in the feedback regulation of gonadotrophin secretion. We therefore studied the association of gonadotrophin levels and the AluI polymorp...

Background: Hormonal activity and insulin resistance (IR) in patients with incidentally discovered bilateral adrenal adenomas (BA) has not been evaluated until now. Therefore, we have investigated cortisol and aldosterone secretion and IR in 29 patients with BA, in 113 patients with unilateral adrenal adenomas (UA) and in 89 healthy subjects (C).Methods: All subjects underwent the following investigation: 1) Low dose dexamethasone suppression test (LDDST...

Background: 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) vitamin levels are positively associated with bone mineral density and season, time of day and sun exposure duration influence its synthesis. Variations in daylight throughout the year and zenith angle, depending on the latitude of residence, influence u.v. solar radiation which is closely related to serum 25(OH)D levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of seasonal variation of 25(OH)D serum levels in a population-...

Background and objectives: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) originates from thyroid C-cells and is a calcitonin (CT) secreting tumour with aggressive behaviour. Surgery is recommended in all patients with basal or calcium-stimulated CT values of 100 pg/ml or higher due to the high probability of MTC. The objective of this study was to investigate the utility of calcium stimulation test for CT in order to distinguish MTC from C-cell Hyperplasia (CCH) preoperatively and to exam...

Background: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the presence of endocrine and nonendocrine tumors. Until recently, more than 450 different germline mutations have been reported in MEN1 patients involving frameshift deletions, insertions, as well as nonsense mutations.Aim: To report a novel mutation in MEN1 gene in a young female with persisting primary hyperparathyroidism.<p class="ab...

Introduction: Acromegaly is well known to induce hypertrophy and hyperplasia in many organs, i.e. thyroid gland, colon, prostate. This action is presumably exerted by the elevated GH and IGF1 levels. In our study, we investigated the alterations of the adrenal glands seen in acromegaly.Aim: To assess the changes in adrenal morphology and functional status in a series of patients with acromegaly.Subjects and methods: Fifty-four acro...

Background: Many patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) are treated with radiodine (I-131) after thyroidectomy, while they are hypothyroid and all are submitted to withdrawal of LT4 periodically for the evaluation of their disease. Among the tests used for follow-up is serum thyroglobulin (Tg) as a tumor marker, and occasionally, total body scan with I-131. Maximal sensitivity of the aforementioned tests is established in the hypothyroid state, under elevated thyrot...

Introduction: The prevalence of autonomous aldosterone secretion (AAS) in hypertensive subjects varies due to the use of various suppression tests and cut-off values. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence of AAS in hypertensive subjects and test the anti-hypertensive effect of targeted treatment of the renin angiotensin II aldosterone system (RAAS) in AAS subjects.Description of methods/design: We investigated 336 hypertensive subjects with and without ...