Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Even with a high incidence of infertility owing to the suppressive effects of hypercortisolism in the gonadal axis, either associated or not to hyperandrogenism and ovulatory dysfunction, Cushing’s syndrome (CS) during pregnancy has been reported. This could be due to a greater rate of CS among women in reproductive age; however, it is a rare condition, with fewer than 200 cases reported in the literature. In general, CS affects 2–25 people to every 1...

Objective: Sporadic adrenocortical tumors are common, but their pathogenesis is poorly elucidated. Several mRNA profiling and comparative genome hybridization (CGH) studies have been performed on adrenocortical tumors to date. Meta-analysis of these results may be warranted due to the low number of tumor samples examined in several individual studies. Here, we present an integrative meta-analysis of gene expression microarray and CGH studies performed to date on sporadic adren...

BackgroundSubacute thyroiditis (SAT) has been related to acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated the incidence and the severity of SAT due to SARS-CoV-2.MethodsA cross-sectional, retrospective study was conducted at the Endocrinology Unit of University-Hospital of Pisa, Italy. All patients experiencing SAT arisen within a period of 15 days earlier and yet untreated, assessed from J...

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor arising from parafollicular C-cells. Nowadays different targeted therapies are available, directed mostly against the main genetic driver of MTC, RET, and against the common pro-oncogenic pathways of VEGF, EGFR and c-MYC. Despite this, an escape phenomenon has been observed with sudden disease progression during treatment, leaving surgery as the only curative treatment. The evaluation of pre and post treatment ge...

Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB) is the recommended diagnostic tool for differentiating malignant from benign thyroid nodules and provides indication for surgical decisions. According to the Italian system, thyroid nodules are classified as TIR 1/1C, TIR 2, TIR 3A, TIR3B, TIR4 or TIR5, which correspond to Thy I, Thy II, Thy III, Thy IV, Thy V and Thy VI categories of the Bethesda system. TIR 3 identifies the indeterminate nodules. Surgery is usually recommended for TIR 3B,...

Objective: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent cause of secondary hypertension. According to the Endocrine Society Guidelines, up to 50% of hypertensive patients should be screened for PA, using the aldosterone to renin (or plasma renin activity (PRA)) ratio (AARR and ARR respectively). The automated Diasorin LIAISON chemiluminescent immunoassay for renin and aldosterone measurement became available and in many laboratories is currently used instead of the classica...

Primary Aldosteronism (PA) is the most frequent cause of secondary hypertension and patients display an increased prevalence of cardiovascular events compared to essential hypertensives. To date, three familial forms of PA have been described and termed, familial hyperaldosteronism types I, II and III (FH-I to -III). The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of the three forms of FH in a large population of PA patients. Three hundred ...

Objective: Destructive thyroiditis is the most common endocrine immune related adverse event (iRAEs) in patients treated with anti-PD1/PD-L1 agents. Given its self-limited course, current guidelines recommend no treatment for this iRAE. Nevertheless in patients with enlarged thyroid volume and a poor performance status, thyrotoxicosis may be particularly severe and harmful. Aim of the study is to evaluate if steroid treatment might be useful in improving thyrotoxicosis in subj...

FAM83B has been recently identified as an oncogene involved in the development and progression of several malignancies, but its role in thyroid cancers (TC) is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the expression of FAM83B and its possible involvement in cell migration and differentiation, in neoplastic and normal thyroid tissues and in TC human cell lines. We found that FAM83B expression in TC varies according to tumor histotype, being si...

Context: Programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) are key regulators in T-cell activation and tolerance. Nivolumab (PD-1 inhibitor) and Atezolizumab (PD-L1 inhibitor) are monoclonal antibodies approved for the treatment of several types of advanced cancers. Immune checkpoint inhibition caused by these drugs can result in immune-related adverse events (irAEs) New-onset diabetes mellitus has been reported in fewer than 1% of patients an...