Endocrine Abstracts

Almost all cases of prolactinomas are benign intrasellar micro- or macroadenomas. Very rarely benign prolactinomas are located outside the sella and in most of these cases the tumors are located in the sphenoidal sinus.We here report a 35 year old woman who presented to the clinic with secondary amenorrhoea and galactorrhoea. Initial laboratory testing revealed mild hyperprolactinemia between 1100 and 1600 μU/ml and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism wit...

Introduction: Growth hormone (GH) is a lipolytic hormone with pleitropic metabolic functions. The effects of long-term GH substitution in pituitary insufficient patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) on lipid metabolism and bone mineralisation (BMD) have yet to be ascertained.Methods: We measured fasting total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, glucose and insulin concentrations in 52 GHD on ...

The OGTT is the gold standard for confirmation or exclusion of acromegaly in treatment-naïve patients as well as after surgery. According to former guidelines, acromegaly is ruled out if the growth hormone (GH) nadir lies below 1.0 μg/l and 0.4 μg/l pre- and postoperatively, respectively. We present the case of a 40-year-old man who presented to the outpatient clinic in 2014 for endocrinological evaluation after an elevated IGF-I concentration had occasionally b...

Introduction: Ipilimumab is a monoclonal antibody directed against CTLA-4 used primarily in treatment of malignant melanoma. Immunological side effects are common, amongst others it may lead to hypophysitis. We studied clinical characteristics of IpiH and compared it to cases of primary hypophysitis (PH).Methods: We conducted a retrospective single centre study in 75 hypophysitis patients (60 primary, 15 Ipilimumab-induced in patients with melanoma). Gro...

Introduction: Acromegaly is a rare disease resulting from GH excess mostly due to pituitary adenomas. It is associated with changes of most organ systems and multiple comorbidities. The impact of GH and IGF-I excess on renal function in acromegaly is unclear.Methods: We investigated 66 acromegalic patients from our outpatient clinic (32 female, 34 male, mean age 61.5±12.9 years, women 10 years older than men). The renal function was assessed by bloo...

Introduction: GH rises dose dependently during treatment with the GH receptor antagonist pegvisomant. Ghrelin stimulates GH secretion. In de novo acromegalic patients with high GH levels, ghrelin levels are lowered and fat mass is reduced. Leptin levels are positively correlated to fat mass. We performed this cross-sectional study to evaluate whether elevated endogenous GH in acromegalic patients on pegvisomant treatment (peg) reduces ghrelin and leptin levels.<p class="ab...

In GH deficiency (GHD), fat mass is elevated compared to normal subjects. Leptin is positively related to fat mass, BMI and food intake, while ghrelin correlates negatively. During an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), leptin increases in obese subjects and generally does not change in normal weight subjects. Ghrelin decreases during OGTT. We performed a cross-sectional study in order to investigate the influence of GH-substitution on leptin and ghrelin in GHD.<p class="a...

We present the case of a 67-year-old man who presented to the outpatient clinic for endocrinological evaluation after partial resection of an atypical pituitary adenoma (APA). Pathohistological assessment of two independent and experienced neuropathologists resulted in a diagnosis of APA with unusually high proliferation indices (Ki67 10–20%/p53 30%) and immunoreactivity for LH, FSH and the alpha-subunit. Clinical examination as well as laboratory testing revealed no sign...

Background: Soluble alpha klotho (sαKL) is a circulating protein that has been linked to the growth hormone (GH) axis. We previously showed its association to disease activity in patients with acromegaly, with considerable robustness towards biological confounders. However, there is scarce data in literature regarding the analytical performance of the assay, and pre-analytical stability of sαKL in blood samples. Objective: We aimed to evaluate ...

Background: Although the prognosis inGuillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is generally good, the protracted and sometimes incomplete recovery is a heavy burden for patients. Animal studies suggest that treatment with growth hormone (GH) could stimulate myelin repair and thus accelerate functional recovery in acute polyneuropathy. We report on the first use of GH in GBS.Objective: To monitor safety and tolerability as well as to evaluate the effect of off-l...