Endocrine Abstracts

My research focuses on the long-term consequences of pituitary diseases, and on the effects of stress hormones on the central nervous system (CNS) in specific. This has elucidated long-term effects of hormone excess on the CNS, as well as on other organs that affect stress-resilience, and consequently, general well-being and quality of life. This profoundly affects our understanding of the biological effects of stress hormone excess on the CNS, and on the care for patients wit...

Introduction: Full blood count (FBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin and serum inflammation-based scores reflect systemic inflammation and predict outcomes in oncological patients. While these are increasingly used in cancer, little is known in pituitary adenomas (PAs). We aimed to characterise FBC and inflammation-based scores in patients with PAs and investigate the usefulness of such parameters in predicting aggressive/refractory disease.Methods: W...

Background The European Registries for Rare Endocrine Conditions and the European Registries for Rare Bone and Mineral Conditions were created in collaboration with the European Reference Networks for Rare Endocrine and Bone Disorders (Endo-ERN and ERN BOND). Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the registries, together with the ESE RD Committee, have collected the occurrence of confirmed and suspected cases of COVID-19 in patients with rare endocrine and bone...

Background: Venous thromboembolism(VTE) is a well-known perioperative complication in patients with Cushing’s syndrome(CS) and may be preventable. A recent report highlighted that thromboprophylaxis management in patients with CS still varies considerably across Endo-ERN reference centers but the actual incidence of VTE and its management in individual patients is unclear.Aim: To collect epidemiological and clinical data of new cases of CS reported ...

Background: Clinically non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFMA) have been reported to express various somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes, but results are inconsistent across different studies. This may be related to limited sensitivity and specificity of techniques used to date, i.e. immunohistochemistry in surgical specimens and 111In-DTPA-octreotide scintigraphy (Octreoscan) in vivo. The aim of this study was to assess SSTR expression in NFMA <em...

Objective: Pituitary diseases cause a wide range of local and systemic symptoms and severely affect patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL), which can be monitored using both disease-specific and generic questionnaires. The most frequently used generic HRQoL questionnaire is the Short Form-36 (SF-36), generating a mental (MCS) and physical component score (PCS). The shorter 12-item version (SF-12) can improve efficiency of patient monitoring and outcome measurem...

Background: Transsphenoidal surgery is standard care in the treatment of hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas. Current clinician-reported surgical outcome measures are one-dimensional, typically focussing primarily on complete or partial resection and secondarily on complication rates. However, outcomes are best reflected by the delicate balance of efficacy and complications at patient level. This study proposes a novel way to classify outcome, integrating efficacy and safety ...

Objective: To identify factors influencing the development of osteoarthritis during long-term control of acromegaly, focusing on disease specific parameters, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) concentrations and duration of disease, adjusted for the well-known determinants of primary osteoarthritis.Design: Follow-up study.Methods: We studied 67 patients, with adequate biochemical control of acromegaly for ...

Background: Cushing’s disease is caused by an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-secreting pituitary adenoma, resulting in glucocorticoid excess. First-choice treatment is transsphenoidal pituitary surgery, using either a microscopic or endoscopic technique. Convincing evidence supporting the choice for one of both techniques, either based on treatment results or complication rate, is lacking.Objective: We aimed to compare endoscopic and microscopic...

BackgroundEndogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is detrimental to bone. The skeletal complications are characterized by decreased bone formation and increased bone resorption, resulting in decreased bone mineral density (BMD) and an increased risk of fractures at time of diagnosis. After remission of the disease, BMD improves towards normal values but fracture rate remains elevated. Therefore, components of bone quality other than BMD, such as bone mat...