Endocrine Abstracts

We report an interference in an immunoassay for aldosterone, which potentially could have led to a wrongful diagnosis and unnecessary surgery. The interference was serendipitously recognized due to a preanalytical error. A 59-year-old female patient with hypertension was referred to the department of endocrinology after an adrenal incidentaloma was detected. Because of her hypertensive history, screening for primary hyperaldosteronism was performed. An elevated aldosterone and...

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare disease accounting for 1-3% of all thyroid carcinomas. Unfortunately, most patients present with metastasized disease: 70% with cervical lymph node metastasis and 5-10% with distant metastasis. Survival strongly correlates with stage of disease at diagnosis, illustrating the need for early diagnosis. Calcitonin is a well-established tumour marker for MTC, but its use in the screening phase is limited by a high rate of fal...

Background: Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), a neuroendocrine tumour derived from the parafollicular C-cells, often present with metastasized disease. Survival strongly correlates with stage of disease at diagnosis, illustrating the need for early diagnosis. Calcitonin (CT), a well-established tumour marker for MTC, is limited by a high rate of false positives in the screening phase. Promising new markers for MTC are procalcitonin (PCT) and progastrin releasin...

IntroductionAltered levels of hormonal appetite regulators have been observed in obesity (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2), most prominently increases of insulin and leptin (indicating resistance) as well as decreases of adiponectin–all of which are long-term energy regulators and adiposity signals. Disrupted signaling of these hormones may have detrimental effects on metabolism, but may also promote weight gain. Weight loss is often accompanied ...

Background: Obesity (BMI ≤ 30 kg/m2) is a chronic and relapsing disease, associated with numerous co-morbidities. Lifestyle intervention is the cornerstone of treatment of obesity, and is considered effective when weight loss of ≤ 5% is achieved. Here, we describe changes in physiological, psychological and behavioral health outcomes in response to a multidisciplinary combined lifestyle intervention (CLI).MethodsIn this longitudinal study we evaluated 97...

Introduction: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex syndrome including hyperphagia, pituitary hormone deficiencies, low muscle mass and cognitive impairment. Treatment with recombinant Growth Hormone (GH) has beneficial effects on body composition, physical performance, cognition, psychomotor development, respiratory function, and quality of life of patients with PWS. GH treatment has a narrow therapeutic range. Clinicians measure serum immunoreactive Insulin-like Growth Fa...

BackgroundLong-term glucocorticoids, as measured in scalp hair (HairGC), are associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). It is not known whether this represents a state of obesity or whether chronic hypercortisolism may influence the course or reversibility of obesity. In this study we longitudinally examine the relation between HairGC concentrations and metabolic syndrome parameters in patients with obesity who participate in a 1.5 year i...

Objective: MRI T2-signal intensity and somatostatin (SST) receptor expression are recognized predictors of therapy response in acromegaly. We investigate the relationship between these predictors and the hormonal and tumor responses to PAS-LAR therapy, and compare to first-generation somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) responsiveness.Methods: We included 45 acromegalics initially receiving SRLs, followed by a combination therapy including pegvisomant (P...