Endocrine Abstracts

The ectopic secretion of corticotropin from no pituitary tumours causes ~10–20% of cases of Cushing’s syndrome. Enteropancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma represents a rare cause of ectopic ACTH syndrome.Case: A 51 years-old woman without past medical history was admitted by gain weight, facial oedema 4 months previous. Physical examination: BP 167/124, cardiac rate 49 bpm, facial oedema, troncular obesity. No others abnormalities. Laboratory te...

Introduction: Percutaneous ablation has been used over the years for the minimally invasive treatment of liver, kidney, thyroid and, although less frequent, adrenal cysts. We describe the case of a young patient with a large adrenal cyst treated with ethanol ablation, avoiding adrenalectomy.Clinical case: We present a 32-year-old woman who is referred to Endocrinology due to a 10 cm adrenal incidental finding in an MRI performed due to disc herniation. A...

Introduction: Cancer is the result of genetic and epigenetic alterations generating uncontrolled cell growth. These molecular changes maintain an immunosuppressive microenvironment allowing tumor spread. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are novel therapeutic strategies in cancer treatment, promoting anti-tumor response by boosting cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Despite their high effectiveness, they can trigger the activation of diverse autoimmune diseases in genetically predispos...

Introduction: It has been stimated that up to 30% of idiopathic Addison disease in young boys is due to X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy. We report the case of a 31-year-old previously asymptomatic man, who presented with hyperpigmentation and fatigue. Investigations revealed hyponatraemia (116 mEq/l), low serum cortisol (2.6 μg/ml) and high ACTH levels (>2000 pc/ml), plasma potassium was 4.37 mEq/l. Adrenal antibodies were absent and abdominal computerized tomography sc...

Introduction: Pancreatic ACTHomas have a poor prognosis with severe and rapidly progressive clinical courses, influenced by hypercortisolaemia thus whenever possible, control of the cortisol levels should be obtained to reduce complications. We report the use of adrenal embolisation in a case of a life threatening paraneoplastic Cushing.Case: A 51-year-old woman with a negative past medical history complained of general weakness. Cushing’s syndrome ...

Introduction: Pheochromocytomas are a rare catecholamine secreting tumours that can mimic numerous stress-associated disorders, such as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or transient left ventricular apical ballooning which is brought on by an acute coronary vasospasm due to an excessive sympathetic stimulation.Case ReportA 68-year-old woman, with previous medical history of hypertension and type 2 diabetes, who was on 30 units of isuline ...

Introduction: Ectopic PTH secretion is rare, to our knowledge, with only 27 cases reported in the literature and 3, ( a tonsil, a lung and a penile) due to squamous cell carcinoma .In the few cases reported to date it appears to be more common in males and in those over the age of 60. The management of the hypercalcemia in this setting is complicated. We are aware of 2 other case reports in which cinacalcet was used in this context, but as in our case, unsuccessfully.<p cl...

Introduction: Pituitary carcinomas are rare and their management is difficult, because they exhibit a continued growth and metastatic dissemination despite of multimodal and aggressive treatments. Temozolamide, has shown a substantial response rates in pituitary carcinomas.We report the case of a patient with a malignant prolactinoma successfully treated with temozolamide.Case report: The patient, a 62-year-old male, consulted with...

Introduction: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. LCH may be localized or be a systemic disease. The diagnosis is frecuent in pediatric age. In adults, infiltration is most frecuently in bones, lungs and skin, and shows particular predilection for hypothalamo-pituitary axis.Case: A 51 years old man was referred due to polyuria of ~15 l of daily urine output. His past medical history revealed bronchiect...

Introduction: Although it has been suggested that there is a strong association between acromegaly and premalignant colonic lesions and colon cancer, it seems that in real – life practice the adherence to ACRO colonoscopy guidelines might be lower than expected (as recently shown by M.Parolin et cols).Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the case records of the 54 patients with acromegaly seen in our center since 1994.We analyzed the findings of 27 ...