Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder among premenopausal women affecting up to 20% of the population. Even though androgen excess is the main diagnostic criterion for PCOS, the evaluation of hyperandrogenemia relies on methods with low accuracy and mainly able to measure total androgen amounts. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) allows high accuracy steroids measurement and if applied to saliva, it also allows the measurem...

Background: Excess testosterone in PCOS is accompanied by increased levels of other ovarian and adrenal androgens and precursors. Recently, 11-oxygenated adrenal androgens have been postulated as major components of the circulating androgen pool in PCOS. Obesity is strictly connected with androgen excess and with the derangement of hormone circadian rhythmicity. To date, it has not been clarified whether hyperandrogenism in PCOS, either complicated by obesity or not, is accomp...

Introduction: Clinical and laboratory hyperandrogenisms indistinctly contribute to PCOS diagnosis; however, they differ in hormonal and metabolic correlates and require proper therapeutic strategies. Circulating biomarkers of hirsutism were not identified so far, with elevated testosterone being observed only in half of hirsute patients. Reasons for such inconsistencies possibly relies in previously used immunoassays, nowadays recognized as not adequate because of poor reliabi...