Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Recent data suggest a direct effect of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) on the skeletal metabolism. Particularly, it can encourage bone resorption and also inhibit osteoblast differentiation. High FSH levels have been found to correlate with impaired bone health in females, whilst evidence in males remains somewhat poor and conflicting. Intriguingly, men with primary and central hypogonadism might represent a novel study model in this context.<p class="abstex...

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is one of the major causes of female infertility, affecting about 3.7% of women before the age of 40. POI is associated with the premature loss of ovarian function and can manifest with primary amenorrhea (PA) or post-pubertal secondary amenorrhea (SA), with elevated gonadotropins and hypoestrogenism. Several evidence established a clear genetic component to POI, albeit heterogeneous. In search of novel causative genes, we screened 64 POI pa...

Introduction: Kallmann syndrome (KS) is a genetic condition characterized by the association of anosmia or hyposmia and GnRH deficiency resulting in congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH). Different genes can be implicated in KS, and the most frequent allelic variant occurs in the KAL1/ANOS1 gene in the X-linked form. Differential diagnosis is often made with other rare genetic diseases as CHARGE syndrome (CS) that includes hypogonadism, hyposmia and several organ defe...

Case history: A 54-year-old lady was diagnosed with primary hypoparathyroidism in 2005, after being referred by her Rheumatologist as her father and brother had familial hypoparathyroidism and sensorineural deafness. She was followed up in endocrine clinic for management of primary hypoparathyroidism. Her hypocalcaemia is well managed with calcium supplementation, with no specific symptoms of hypocalcaemia. She has recurrent urinary tract infections with known borderline chron...

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic caused by the severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) determined millions of deaths worldwide, thus at the end of 2020 a massive vaccination campaign has been launched. SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccines have been associated with several thyroid disorders, especially subacute thyroiditis (SAT), Graves’ disease (GD) and orbitopathy (GO). We studied the occurrence of SAT and GO following SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccinati...

Objectives: Evaluate the benefit of postsurgical radioactive iodine (RAI) in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) at low to intermediate risk of recurrent disease in whom not routinary use of RAI is recommendedMethods: We retrospectively evaluated 1316 patients with DTC diagnosed between 2009-2015. ATA low (LR) and intermediate (IR) risk were included in the study (PTC: tumor size > 1 cm, microscopic extrathyroidal invasion, <5 micro...

Introduction: The humanized antibody anti-CD52+ alemtuzumab has been approved since 2014 for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Immune reconstitution after alemtuzumab induces thyroid autoimmunity in 34-41% of patients with RRMS, with Graves’ disease (GD) accounting for 63-65% of cases. Graves’ Orbitopathy (GO) may also occur in 13% of patients after alemtuzumab and is scarcely reported. Here we present the first case of alemtuzumab-induc...

Despite an accurate management, in about 20% of hypothyroid patients showing an increased need for oral levothyroxine (LT4), the leading cause of treatment refractoriness remains unknown. Some studies hypothesized the relationship between gut microbiota composition and thyroid homeostasis, but the possible involvement of microflora in the efficacy of LT4 treatment has not been evaluated yet, and this represents the aim of our study. We examined the faecal microflora compositio...

Background: Vaccination is a widely adopted measure against the severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing Covid-19 pandemic. Both SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 vaccines have been associated with several thyroid disorders. We studied the risk of Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) following Covid-19 vaccination.Methods: The study included 98 consecutive patients (71 females and 27 males, mean-age 50 years) attending our tertiary r...

Obesity incidence is increasing globally at an alarming rate, particularly amongst children and young adults. Male obesity has been linked with a reduction in sperm quality and consequently decreased fertilization rates. Seminal vesicles are considered fundamental for male fertility and though for men’s health. Vesicle seminal secretion contributes to a significant volume of seminal fluid, being extremely important for semen coagulation and sperm motility. Recent studies ...