Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common among elderly men and patients suffering from chronic diseases, the latter probably including also HIV infection. No studies, however, compared the prevalence of ED in HIV-infected and -uninfected individuals using the IIEF-15.Aim: To compare ED prevalence in young-middle aged men with and without HIV infection using the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) questionnaire.<p class="abstex...

Background: β-thalassemia is associated with increased iron overload in endocrine tissues, including parathyroid glands. The occurrence of unbalanced calcium (Ca)-phosphorous (P) metabolism, such as chronic HPT, is higher in these patients compared to the general population. However, data about prevalence and presentation of HPT in this setting are scanty.Aim: To explore the biochemical characteristics of Ca-P metabolism, particularly the prevalence...

Background: Patients with CHH and KS share eunuchoid body proportions of skeleton compared to normal male subjects. On the contrary, testosterone levels at puberty are lower in CHH patients compared to KS patients.Aim: To compare anthropometric measurements of adult male CHH vs KS patients.Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted. CHH patients were subdivided into 2 subgroups according to the timin...

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the most frequent sexual disorder. Although psychological ED (pED) is the most frequent form, vascular ED (vED) is associated with 1.25 times greater risk of developing major cardiovascular diseases. Alongside cardiovascular aspect, the evaluation of patients’ health, measured by the comorbidities number, in relation to the ED aetiology has never been investigated so far.Objectives: To explore the potential r...

Introduction: Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) is a heterogenous disease caused by mutations in several genes. Based on the presence of hyposmia/anosmia it is distinguished into Kallmann syndrome and isolated HH. The prevalence of other developmental anomalies is not well established.Methods: We studied patients with HH (29 males, 3 females, mean age 41.5), 9 with familial and 23 sporadic HH (29 congenital, 3 adult-onset), by physical examination, smel...

Introduction: Aromatase cytochrome P450 is uniquely responsible for estrogen synthesis in vertebrates. The protein is expressed in the gonads and other extraglandular tissues. Deregulated expression of aromatase has pathological relevance and targeting the CYP19A1 product could be an effective strategy for treatment of affected tissues. Nevertheless, very little is known concerning the role of protein oligomerisation, glycosylation and degradation. Here we studied the aromatas...

Introduction: Thyroid FNAB is the gold standard to discriminate malignant from benign thyroid nodules. However, inadequate cytology ranges from 1 to 20% (up to 33.6%) in different settings and could depend on several factors, including the operator’s skills.Aim: To evaluate the effect of operator’s experience on US-FNAB diagnostic adequacy we reviewed 7029 US-FNABs performed from January 2006 to March 2009.Materials and M...

Introduction: There is no consensus about the usefulness of repeating the US-FNAB during the follow-up of nodules when a benign (Thy2) or indeterminate (Thy3) report is obtained at first US-FNAB.Aim of the study: To investigate the clinical value of repeating US-FNAB after a previous adequate Thy2 or Thy3 US-FNAB.Methods: We reviewed the US-FNABs performed from 2006 to 2009. All clinical data of the patients were collected and anal...

Introduction: Several studies in literature have shown that some features of thyroid nodules at US are associated with malignancy. However, previous studies were focused mainly on subjects affected by multinodular goiter (about 70%) rather than subjects with thyroid cancer (about 30%). Furthermore, the main limitation of previous studies was the lack of thyroidectomy in all subjects.Aim of the study: To evaluate the diagnostic value of US features in a s...

Introduction: At puberty, the raise of serum estradiol (E2) (after testosterone conversion) is needed to fuse ephiphyses and to complete bone maturation in boys. Owing to severe hypogonadism and very low circulating testosterone, adult men with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) may present with unfused epiphyses and continuing linear growth if androgen deficiency is unrecognized and untreated. In order to establish the minimal amount of sex steroids nee...