Endocrine Abstracts

Background: QT interval reflects cardiac ventricular repolarization and, if prolonged, increases the risk of malignant arrhythmias such as torsade de pointes. QT interval duration is similar in boys and girls during childhood but shortens in males after puberty. In fact, reference limits for QTc in adults reflect this difference, i.e. lower than 460 ms in women and lower than 440 ms in men. Experimental studies suggest that testosterone is the major contributor to shortening o...

Cushing’s disease (CD) occur more frequently in females than in males, but in men this disease seems appear at a younger age and with more severe symptoms and clinical course. Aim of this study was to compare clinical features and biochemical indices of hypercortisolism in male and female patients with CD.Methods: Forty-five patients (35 females and 10 males) with confirmed CD were analyzed. All patients underwent a complete biochemical and endocrin...

Background: Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) show muscle mass wasting and decreased testosterone levels. Long-term testosterone supplementation improves walking distance and glucose metabolism of patients CHF. No studies have investigated the integrated effects of testosterone on exercise oxygen uptake muscle strength and glucose metabolism in patients with CHF regardless of the presence of hypogonadism.Aim: To assess the effect of a 12-week ...

Background: Testosterone administration (TA) can improve exercise capacity and glucose metabolism of males patients (pts) with chronic heart failure (CHF). It is not known whether testosterone supplementation benefits only CHF subjects with hypogonadism.Aim: To compare effects of TA in male pts with CHF with and without testosterone deficiency.Methods: Fifty-six males patients (median age 64.2±9.6), ejection fraction (EF) 36&#...

Aim: To address the role of FDG/PET-CT in the follow-up of DTC.Methods: About 110 consecutive patients (86 female, 24 male, mean age 45±13 years), with DTC were selected between 1999 and 2006. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy, radioiodine ablation and had undetectable serum thyroglobulin (Tg) during L-T4 suppressive therapy and negative serum TgAb. The follow-up included a yearly clinical examination with n...

Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor is a member of the G protein-coupled receptors family. According to its incretin properties, GIPR is expressed in tissues such as pancreas, stomach and adipose tissue. However GIPR expression pattern appears to be broader, as it was detected in other tissues such as heart, lung and the central nervous system, thus suggesting either novel ligands for GIPR or novel actions for GIP. Moreover, in some patients with food-d...

PreproTRH (178–199), a 22-aminoacid cleavage product of the TRH prohormone, has been postulated to act as an ACTH-releasing inhibitor. Indeed, in vitro evidence indicates that this peptide may inhibit basal and stimulated ACTH secretion in rodent anterior pituitary primary cultures and cell lines (Redei 1995, Revskoy 2001), although not all studies concur (Nicholson 1996). Aim of the present study was to test the effect of preproTRH(178–199) in human tumoral c...

The main aims of treatment of acromegaly are reversing symptoms and signs, removing the tumour, preventing disease recurrence, and improving survival. Increased mortality associated with acromegaly can be diminished if treatment is successful in reducing GH <2–2.5 ng/ml. We carried out a prospective study to assess whether recent advances in surgical technique (namely the endoscopic approach in a specialised centre encompassing specialist pituitary surgeons working in...

Human type 2 deiodinase (hD2) regulates T3 production in placenta during trophoblast development. hD2 mRNA and protein levels are elevated only during the first trimester of gestation then becoming barely detectable. These variations are similar to those of chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a well-known marker of early gestation secreted by the cytotrophoblast. A peculiar promoter architecture of the gene encoding the alpha subunit of hCG allows a CRE-mediated synergism between cA...

Increasing evidence suggests a relevant role for thyroid gland in maintaining hypophysis-thyroid homeostasis even in patients treated with oral thyroxine. Aim of the study was to compare the daily dose of thyroxine required to attain subnormal serum TSH levels in patients with nontoxic goitre before and following total thyroidectomy. To address this question we have studied: a) 15 patients (8 women and 7 men; median age=53 years) with nontoxic goitre (NTG) and no evidence of a...