Endocrine Abstracts

This work aimed to evaluate pituitary–adrenal axis and tissue metabolism of cortisol in patients with long standing type one diabetes.Fifty patients with diabetes type 1 were investigated; age 38±10 years (mean±S.D.), age at diagnosis 25.5±10 years, disease duration 15±8 years, BMI 24.5±2.7 kg/cm2, HbA1c 7.2±1.2%. Control group consisted of 40 healthy volunteers.The study...

Pituitary and adrenal gland assessment, is one of the most important aspects of the management of a pituitary and adrenal adenoma.Clinical practice varies widely with regard to assessment of pituitary and adrenal status pre- and post-operative. Pre-operative testing includes dynamic testing to assess function which is not practical in the immediate post-operative period. Instead a single morning serum total hormones are measured while a more definitive a...

The current conventional glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy in primary adrenal insufficiency (Addison’s disease) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) renders the cortisol levels unphysiological, resulting in very high levels alternating with almost undetectable levels of cortisol over the day. This reduces not merely the patient’s quality of life but increases the patient’s morbidity and mortality. The HPA axis is characterised by a dynamic circadian va...

Introduction: Salivary cortisol measurement, representing free cortisol, seems to be a promissing alternative method to serum cortisol. Besides its use in the diagnostics of hypercortisolism, it could be of help in evaluation of adrenocortical reserve. It might be useful especially in patients on estrogen replacement, which modulates transcortin and hence total cortisol levels.Aims: Compare the reliability of salivary vs. serum cortisol assessment during...

Objective: Chronic smoking alters the circulating levels of sex hormones and possibly also the neuroactive steroids, however, the data available is limited.Patients and methods: Therefore, a broad spectrum of free and conjugated steroids and related substances was quantified by GC–MS and RIA in premenopausal smokers and in age-matched (38.9±7.3 years of age) non-smokers in the follicular (FP) and luteal phases (LP) of menstrual cycle (10 non-sm...

Background: Smoking represents the most widespread substance dependence in the world. Several studies show the nicotine’s ability to alter women hormonal homeostasis. Women smokers have higher testosterone and lower estradiol levels throughout life compared to women non-smokers. This negatively affects women reproductive function. Furthermore, alteration of neuroactive and neuroprotective steroids occurs in women smokers, which plays an important role in the activity of t...

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is one of the most serious substance abuse problems. It is generally accepted that nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco smoke alter endocrine function in women, induce changes in female hormonal balance and likely contributes to reported associations of smoking with adverse reproductive outcomes, including menstrual dysfunction, infertility, and earlier menopause. Studies on the effects of smoking and smoking cessation on female sex hormones ...

Background: A high percentage of adult smokers try to quit, but most of these attempts fail. The ability to predict the success or failure of smoking cessation efforts will be useful for clinical practice. Stress response is regulated by two primary neuroendocrine systems. Salivary cortisol has been used as a marker for the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and salivary α-amylase as a marker for the sympathetic adrenomedullary system.Method...

The aim of the study was to obtain the basic data about adrenomedullin after 1 μg ACTH stimulation.Adrenomedullin has direct effect on adrenal cortex secretion, therefore we studied the changes of its concentrations during ACTH stimulation in diabetic patients suspected of hypocorticalism.Thirty-two diabetics type 1 (DM1) were investigated; 16 with and 16 without autoimmune thyroditis (AIT); age 44±10 years (mean±<sm...

Introduction: 7-hydroxyl DHEA derivatives are labelled as natural anti-glucocorticoid and neuroprotective substances. Their impact on the production of cytokines, their activation of apoptosis, influence on the migration of macrophages to peripheral tissue, their possible effect on angiogenesis, effect on inflammatory mediators (arachidonic acid metabolites) and their role in the mechanism of oxidative stress have been described.Methods: In our study we ...