Endocrine Abstracts

Several co-morbidities are associated with the HIV infection involving also the endocrine-metabolic system. Consistently, the recent development of HAART therapy ruled out a significant improvement both in the prognosis and life expectancy of HIV-infected patients, but disclosed also new serious drug-related toxicity. Of these, the lipodystrophy syndrome is the most frequent, occurring in up to 83% of HIV-infected patients under HAART. HIV-related lipodystrophy is associated w...

Nitric oxide (NO) is the main final effector for penile erection achievement and maintenance in men and it constitutes a crucial target for therapeutical strategies addressed to the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The role of sex steroids penile NO pathway is still unclear, but some data suggest a positive role of androgens. In order to study the effects of sildenafil on human sleep-related erections according to the state of androgenization, we recently evaluated the effec...

Background and aim: KS has been classically described as characterized by hyperestrogenism and elevated serum E2 together with increased gonadotropins and low-to-normal serum testosterone (T). In literature, data on increased serum E2 are not solid. The aim of this study is to meta-analyse data from studies evaluating serum E2 in both KS and healthy subjects (HS) in order to verify if E2 is increased in KS.Meth...

Background: Prevalence of hypogonadism is high (30%) in men with HIV. In these patients T treatment (TT) is currently used mainly to counteract wasting syndrome and/or HIV-related lipodystrophy, irrespective of patients’ serum T. However, its effect and safety in HIV-infected men is still not completely known.Aim: To investigate both beneficial and adverse effects related to TT in HIV-infected men using a meta-analytic approach.<p class="abstext...

Introduction: HIV infection treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) seems to be associated with hypogonadism in men. Less is known in HIV-infected women gonadal status. The aim of this study is to investigate gonadal function, in menopausal HIV-infected women compared sex- and age-matched healthy subjects (HS).Methods: We retrospectively compared 188 HIV-infected women with 192 HS selected reviewing record charts and laboratory database...

Background: Male osteoporosis is undermanaged. The characteristics of men referring to health care system for bone evaluation remain partially unknown.Aim: To characterize from real-life data male patients seeking the first bone health evaluation at a tertiary academic medical center, referral for both andrological and bone diseases, over a 13-year observation period.Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study, including adult me...

Background: Multidisciplinary approach to pituitary disease is highly recommended; it requires a close relationship between expert pituitary surgeons and endocrinologists together with several specialists (e.g. neuroradiologists) in order to provide a high-level standard of care. Although there is evidence that neurosurgeons’ expertise is a key element to achieve better outcomes, also endocrinologists’ role is fundamental but it may sometimes encounter real-life barr...

Background: Patients with CHH and KS have eunuchoid body proportions of the skeleton compared to normal male subjects, characterized by tall stature, and reduced upper-to-lower segment ratio (U/l). Vice versa, steroids exposure deeply differs between CHH and KS at puberty, with both testosterone and estradiol being very low only in CHH. At present, body skeletal proportions comparison between CHH and KS is not available.Aim: To compare anthropom...

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) represents the most frequent sexual dysfunction. Among several possible ED aetiologies, vascular ED (vED) presents the greatest implications for global individual health, resulting an early hallmark of cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, vED was demonstrated associated with a 1.25 times greater risk of developing major cardiovascular diseases. Alongside cardiovascular aspect, the evaluation of patients health, measured by the comorbidities nu...

Background: Iron overload disorders (IOD) are associated with a higher occurrence of unbalanced calcium (Ca)-phosphorous (P) metabolism, including hypoparathyroidism (HPT). However, data about prevalence and presentation of HPT in this setting are scanty. A Ca/P ratio <2.32 has been proposed to detect HPT in the general population.Aim: To characterize Ca-P homeostasis, particularly the prevalence of HPT, in a cohort of adult patients with IOD compare...