Endocrine Abstracts

A large body of evidence suggests that in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) there is a link between abdominal adiposity, visceral adiposity dysfunction and hyperandrogenism and this relationship could be bidirectional. However a well designed study of adipose tissue distribution reported no significant differences between PCOS and controls. Visceral adiposity index (VAI) is a recently reported marker of the cardiovascular risk, strongly correlated with visceral adipose tissue (...

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A) is an inherited syndrome caused by the mutation of RET gene. The classic variant of this syndrome includes the presence of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), in association with pheochromocytoma and parathyroid neoplasia. MTC is usually the first presentation, with palpable neck mass and hypercalcitonemia, metastatic spread to local lymph nodes or distant sites.We report the case of a 41 year old Caucasian man...

Background: Long-acting depot somatostatin analogues injections are useful drugs in the medical treatment of acromegaly. No previous study has assessed the value of acute octreotide suppression test in predicting responses to depot injections.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the value of the acute octreotide suppression test (100 micrograms subcutaneously, GH measurements hourly for 8 hours) in predicting the long-term response to long...

Introduction: The pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas is incompletely understood. It was recently demonstrated that mutations in AIP, a novel tumor suppressor gene, are causing the familial isolated pituitary adenoma syndrome. Although initial data suggested that AIP mutations are rare in non-familial cases, a recent study demonstrated an increased prevalence in young sporadic macroadenoma patients.Aim: To perform a systematic screening of AIP mutations i...

Background: Hirsutism is a major feature of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and the only accepted clinical sign of hyperandrogenism for its diagnosis, according to the androgen excess society (AES) recommendations. Previous studies demonstrated that hirsutism can be influenced by factors other than hyperandrogenism per se.Aim: To detect factors influencing hirsutism severity in PCOS.Patients and methods: Hundred and sev...

Introduction: The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and obesity are related, yet different complex diseases, with the same genes possibly playing different roles in each disease. INSIG2, an obesity-associated gene (by rs7566605 C/C genotype) is a good candidate for PCOS. Its genotypes were not associated with obesity in PCOS patients. To date, there are no published association studies of rs7566605 with PCOS itself.Aim: To perform a case-control associati...

Introduction: Monoclonality of pituitary adenomas is an established fact. Still, there are exceptions and polyclonality may correlate with aggressive tumor behavior. In order to test association of clonality with pituitary adenoma characteristics in a series from Romania, we implemented a protocol for X-chromosome inactivation analysis at the androgen receptor (AR) locus (HUMARA) and validated it in a number of tumor samples.Objective: To establish and v...

There are difficulties in establishing the diagnosis of gonadotropinomas using serum hormonal levels, even after intravenous TRH. We evaluated the relationship between humoral (serum and cerebrospinal fluid - CSF) levels of gonadotropins and the immunohistochemical evidence in tumor tissue.Serum and CSF levels of pituitary hormones were assayed using rapid fluoroimmunometry with Europium. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed with avidin-biotine. Grou...