Endocrine Abstracts

Monotherapy with metformin is widely accepted as the second step in type 2 diabetes treatment after the failure to achieve glycemic goals with therapeutic education and lifestyle modification, including correction of diet and physical exercise habits. However, most of patients need combination therapy in first three to four years after metformin initiation. Obviously the efficacy of antidiabetic drugs used as add-on to metformin monotherapy could be different from those observ...

Methods: We studied 228 patients with T2DM treated in Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital in Endocrinology Department from Jan 2013 to Sep 2014. The greatest attention was paid to the patients’ biochemical analyses, such as triglycerides (TG), c-peptide, HbA1c and prescribed treatment, as well as BMI and the doctor who treated each patient. Phenotypically patients were divided into four major groups. The first group included 73 patients with chronic kidney disease...

A 67-year-old female patient with a more than five-year history of symptomatic treatment of bilateral hip joint arthrosis, lumbar spine spondiloarthrosis as well as progressive hearing impairmen and dizziness was referrred by orthopedic surgeon to the endocrinology ward for diagnostic workup of metabolic bone disease. From the family history it was known that her mother had similar complains by the age of 60, which rapidly led to disability to walk, but she was never properly ...

Background: Vitamin D is a vital hormone for calcium metabolism, bone and muscle health, and immune responses. Vitamin D deficiency affects entire Latvian population.Aim: To compare the effectiveness of different forms of vitamin D.Materials and methods: In a prospective, open-label, randomized study in the Jaunliepaja Primary Health Care Centre, data from 98 vitamin D deficient volunteers over one month at initiation of substituti...

A 45 year old female was referred to the Endocrinology department with complains of severe fatigue and weakness from basic daily activities, also irregular menstrual circle during last five years. Twelve years back she had twin pregnancy, premature delivery on 29th week, and absence of lactation. Afterwards she gradually lost 6 kg of her body weight and her menstrual circle become sparse and disappeared five years back. 1.5 years ago type 1 diabetes was diagnosed (C-peptide be...

Generously supported by IPSEN)-->It is known that acromegaly is associated with increased risk of benign and malignant tumours. Previous studies show the prevalence of nodular thyroid disease in 40–70% of patients with acromegaly, and a 5–7% prevalence of thyroid cancer in these patients, which is higher compared to the general population.Latvian Cancer Register data show an incidence of thyroid cance...

Cytokines, including adhesion molecules, are a family of protein mediators that are important in transducing information between various cell types, were non-immune cells may also be important sources of certain cytokines.Aim: Aim of this study was to evaluate of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), and soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin) in patients with non-immune nodular thyroid disease...

Agouti related protein (AGRP) as a endogenous antagonist of melanocortin 4 receptor plays an important role in regulation of food intake and energy balance being one of the most potent orexigenic factors. We have determined complete sequence of AGRP gene and upstream promoter region in 100 patients with severe obesity (BMI>35). Three previously described polymorphisms were identified: silent mutation G538A in second exon, non-synonymous mutation G772A (rs5030980) and C662T...

Metformin is a biguanide class agent widely used as a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, however the detailed mode of action and exact pharmacodynamics has not been clarified. Moreover there is no studies in humans displaying the effect of metformin on DNA methylation. We therefore performed a clinical study involving twelve healthy nondiabetic individuals who were subjected to the 1 week of metformin (2×850 mg/day) treatment. Peripheral blood for DNA isolation was...

The polyglandular autoimmune syndromes (PAS) are rare disorders characterized as multiple autoimmune-mediated organ failure. PAS III includes chronic autoimmune thyroiditis with type 1 diabetes mellitus or pernicious anemia and/or vitiligo or alopecia and many other organ-specific autoimmune diseases, but never involves adrenal cortex. Several patients with PAS III and associated type 1 gastric neuroendocrine tumor (NET) have already been reported. We report probably the first...