Endocrine Abstracts

The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is increasing worldwide. The untreated metabolic syndrome places individuals at risk both for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Adult GH deficiency syndrome present some of the 5 features of the metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, elevations of blood glucose, hypertension and a 2-fold higher risk of death for CD compared with controls. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence o...

GH replacement is widely used in adults with hypopituitarism, but its effect on tumor occurrence and pituitary tumor recurrence is unknown. Furthermore, in literature there are scant with short follow-up time. The available data do not seem to suggest that rhGH replacement increased the incidence of regrowth of pituitary tumor and of cancer in adults with GHD, provided that IGF-1 concentrations remain within the normal range for age.The aim of our study ...

Adults with hypopituitarism are known to have reduced life expectancy with a 2-fold higher risk of death for cardiovascular disease compared with controls. In Italy, to identify individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease, the function of the Progetto CUORE has been identified and the global cardiovascular risk score has been built using data from different Italian cohorts. To assess the global cardiovascular risk score in adult hypopituitaric patients: 108 hypopituita...

Context: Until now the role of medical therapy in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) was mainly based on the use of bisphosphonates. Recently, cinacalcet hydrochloride was reported to be effective in control hypercalcemia in PHP. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cinacalcet in PHP patients who were not effectively controlled with alendronate.Patients and methods: Fourteen PHP patients (mean age 64.1±2.6) were include...

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) is associated with, increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and intima-media thickness (IMT) at major arteries.Objective: To investigate the long-term (5-years) effects of GH replacement on insulin resistance (IR) syndrome (IRS) (at least two of: triglycerides levels ≥1.7 mmol/l, HDL-cholesterol levels ≤1.0 mmol/l, blood pressure above 130/85 mmHg, fasting glucose 6.1–7 or 2 h after glucose 7.7–11.1...

Animal and observational studies suggest that the IGF axis is involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke; moreover, endogenous IGF-I could influence the evolution of ischemic stroke in humans and thereby contribute to an improved clinical and functional outcome. To assess and correlate the IGF-I axis with biochemical parameters in young patients experiencing ischemic stroke (32 aged 15–45 years,19F, BMI: 25.5±3.4 kg/m2), we evaluated IGF-I, IGFBP-3, A...

The GH/IGF-I axis function are reported to ameliorate after weight-loss. Bariatric surgery leads to a significant weight loss in morbidly obese patients. We investigated the relationships between GH/IGF-I axis and body composition in 20 morbidly obese females (BMI: 44.8±4.7; waist circumference (W) 119.5±7.2 cm, age 33.7±11.7 yrs) with a normal glucose tolerance, before and after laparoscopic silicone adjustable-gastric banding (LASGB). The GH axis was evaluated...

Aim: We compared effectiveness of partial withdrawal of levothyroxine (L-T4) to the use of recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) in preparation for Tg testing. We also evaluated clinical aspects and quality-of-life (QOL) during both regimens.Materials and methods: Ten consecutive patients, previously treated with total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation for DTC, underwent rhTSH protocol and, after 15 days, reduced their L-T4 dose by 50% for 5 weeks. At the f...

Aim of this study was to evaluate lipid profile and the severity of GHD, in a large group of TBI patients with or without GH deficiency. We assayed lipid profile (Total-, HDL- Cholesterol, Triglycerides) in 62 TBI subjects 12 months after TBI (41 M, 21 F, 13–81 yrs, BMI: 24.6±0.6 kg/m2), and in 62 sex-, age- and BMI-matched controls. Based on the GH peak after GHRH+ARG test, patients were stratified as: 1) severe GHD (GH peak ≤ 9 μg/l; <i...