Endocrine Abstracts

Data from the literature suggest that endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is an unusual disorder in the general population with a reported incidence of 2–3 cases per 1 million inhabitants per year. Patients who are not cured from CS have a poor prognosis with an increased mortality due to cardiovascular disease and significant morbidity that impairs quality of life. Recently published screening studies performed in obese patients with type 2 diabetes or patients with ...

Obesity and its consequent metabolic disorders are severe health problems. The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway is an important hypothalamic integrator of the actions of nutrients and hormones on food intake (FI). Nutrient availability also affects the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the hypothalamus and regulates neuronal activity. In the present study, we hypothesise that modulation of mTORC1 activity mediates ROS effects on FI. To thi...

Background: Early diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome and initiation of effective treatment are essential to limit long-term morbidity and early mortality. However, diagnosis is often delayed due to the non-specificity of symptoms, or because symptoms are not recognised by physicians, leading to more complex treatment needs and a worsening of patient quality of life. A survey was conducted to better understand the patient experience of Cushing’s syndrome and the true b...

Background: According to the Endocrine Society’s guidelines, the screening and diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) are based on the results of the overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST), midnight salivary cortisol and 24-hour urinary free cortisol (UFC) measurements. These 3 tests reflect cortisol levels at the time of sampling without providing retrospective information. Hair cortisol concentration is a non-invasive way to measure cortisol exposure over lon...

The performance of late-night salivary cortisol (LNSC) and optimal number of samples to accurately diagnose post-operative recurrence of Cushing’s disease (CD) at an early-stage are unknown. We performed a retrospective analysis in a single tertiary-care center to compare the accuracy of multiple salivary sampling strategies to diagnose early-stage recurrences of CD. 36 patients in remission of CD after surgery were followed up for 69.2±10.6 mo with multiple successi...

We investigated whether urinary cortisol metabolites could help to diagnose patients with cortisol oversecretion either with benign adrenal or corticotroph tumours.Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric assay (LC-MSMS) of cortisol (F)m, cortisone, tetra-hydrocortisol (THF), allo-THF, tetra-hydrocortisone (THE), α-cortol, β-cortol, α-cortolone, α-cortolone and internal standard 6-α-methylprednisolone were assayed after de...

Introduction: Obese humans have increased plasma levels of endocannabinoids like anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachydonoyl-glycerol (2-AG). However, it is unknown whether these orexigenic signals have a role in human eating behavior.Design: We measured plasma AEA and 2-AG levels in 12 normal weight (10 F, age: 39.1±3.7 years, body mass index (BMI): 21.0±0.6 kg/m2, waist circumference (WC): 73.8±2.9 cm) and 12 insulin-resistant obese s...

Cortisol ([C]) biological activity depends on its free fraction diffusion into the intracellular compartment. The diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency requires investigations such as the synacthen test and studies in intensive care units suggest that free plasma [C] could provide a better indicator of efficient [C] than total plasma [C]. We undertook this study to compare various determinations of free [C] levels with regard to adrenal status evaluated on total plasma [C] after ...

Evidence has accumulated about the involvement of the CRF system in the regulation of energy balance. The effects of CRF are mediated by two receptors: CRFR1 and CRFR2. The role of the CRFR1 in the regulation of energy balance is not well defined. To address this issue, adult male CRFR1 KO mice and WT littermates were given low fat (LFD) or high-fat (HFD) diets for 4 months. Under LFD no differences between genotypes were seen on body weight (BW) and caloric intake. KO mice ha...

Introduction: Combination therapy using pegvisomant and cabergoline with first-generation long-acting somatostatin analogs (1GSSA) is a common procedure in acromegalic patients that are not fully controlled by surgery and 1GSSA. Pasireotide-LAR is a new multireceptor-targeted somatostatin receptor ligand that has superior efficacy over octreotide LAR to control GH and IGF1 levels. Little data is available about the efficacy and safety of pasireotide monotherapy in patients tre...