Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Cushing’s syndrome is represented by the cummulation of signs and symptoms of excess glucocorticoids and has many potential causes. Approximately 20 percent of all cases are represented by ACTH-independent adrenal tumors – with a majority of these being represented by cortisol secreting adrenal adenomas. Generally, a large adrenal tumor has over 5 cm in diameter and the risk of it being malignant raises proportionately with the dimensions. Large adrenal t...

Introduction: Carney complex is a rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder which develops secondary to mutation in the PRKAR1A gene located in the 17q22-24 region. It is commonly characterised by the association between spotty skin pigmentation, cardiac myxoma and secretory endocrine tumors.Case presentation: A 15.8-year-old boy known with PRKAR1A mutation diagnosed based on his personal history – cutaneous papiloma of the neck resected at the age o...

Background: Dopamine agonists (DA) have excellent result in controlling both hyperprolactinemia and tumor volume in macroprolactinomas. However, even after long term DA treatment, withdrawal of dopamine agonists results in recurrence of hyperprolactinemia in a significant proportion of patients.Aim: To assess recurrence rate of hyperprolactinemia after DA withdrawal in a large series of patients treated in a tertiar...

Background: Dopamine agonists (DA) have excellent result in controlling both hyperprolactinemia and tumor volume in macroprolactinomas. However, even after long term DA treatment, withdrawal of dopamine agonists results in recurrence of hyperprolactinemia in a significant proportion of patients.Aim: To assess recurrence rate of hyperprolactinemia after DA withdrawal in a large series of patients treated in a tertiar...

Introduction: Acromegalic bone disease is characterized by an increased prevalence of fragility vertebral fractures (VFs). However, an effective, non-invasive and cost-efficient imaging technique that can diagnose early bone alterations in this category of patients is yet to found. The use of bone mineral density (BMD) is not as useful as in other causes of osteoporosis as excess GH leads to specific microarchitectural alteration of trabecular bone, which don’t translate ...

Background: Dopamine agonists (DA) are the first-line treatment for macroprolactinomas. However, up to 10% of patients fail to respond to medical therapy.Aim: To assess biochemical resistance rate to DA treatment in a large series of patients with macroprolactinoma and to analyze possibilities to overcome this resistance.Patients and methods: 195 patients with macroprolactinomas, treated with DA for at least 2 years, were retrospec...

Introduction: The incidence of parathyroid carcinoma in primary hyperparathyroidism is less than 1% and the association with ACTH-independent Cushing syndrome is very rare.Case report: A 40-year-old female was admitted for weight gain and reddish-purple striae. One month earlier she had a ¾ parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism with histopathological examination showing a parathyroid carcinoma and two parathyroid adenomas. She also had a...

Objective: Patients with pituitary macroadenomas and concomitant hypopituitarism have a reduced life expectancy due to various comorbidities.Aim: To investigate mortality in patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFAs) and independent prognostic factors influencing survival.Design: Retrospective cohort study in a tertiary neuroendocrine university department.Methods: A total of 364 patients (177F/1...

Background: Active acromegaly is characterized by decreased insulin sensitivity (ISen). However, insulin secretion (ISec) may not increase satisfactorily to compensate for the low ISen.Aim: To assess ISen and ISec and to calculate disposition index (DI) using an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) in patients with active acromegaly.Methods: Twelve patients (7 men, 5 women) with active acromegaly and 2 normal subjects (2 men)...

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor derived from the thyroid C cells producing calcitonin, ac-counts for 0.6% of all thyroid cancers. It occurs either sporadically or in a hereditary form (RET mutation). MTC can be cured only by complete resection of the thyroid tumor and any loco-regional metastases. Calcitonin (CT) measurement is crucial to the early diagnosis and the follow-up of MTC. If the evaluation of stimulated CT levels is required, a prov...