Endocrine Abstracts

Pregnancy is a puzzling phenomenon for researches as it defies the rules of immunology. The immune system of a pregnant woman is able to both tolerate the foreign while being alert to possible harm. It is now known that paternal antigens expressed by the fetus are not ignored but actively tolerated by the maternal immune system. Pregnancy hormones may have a pivotal role on the modulation of immune cell functions. We have described the important participation of the pregnancy ...

Up-to-date, there have been 7 case reports of hypomagnesaemia associated with hypocalcaemia and hypokalaemia in patients on long-term treatment with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). The suggestion is that these reports present a tip of an iceberg in clinical practice. Inspired by a case of severe symptomatic electrolyte loss, which was corrected by discontinuation of PPIs, we performed an audit of a potential relationship between hypomagnesaemia and PPIs in our hospital.<p c...

According to the World Health Organization, obesity is one of the most important public health challenges of the 21st Century. There is no doubt that excessive calories intake and lack of exercise, are important factors, and that genetics plays a critical role. However, because genes in the population do not change fast enough, other causes must be involved. The involvement of other causes in the etiology of obesity is further strengthened by the fact that obesity is increasin...

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare thyroid C cell malignant tumor that accounts for 3-4% of thyroid gland neoplasias. MTC may occur sporadically or be inherited. Hereditary MTC appears as part of the MEN 2 syndrome. Germ-line mutations of the RET proto-oncogene cause hereditary cancer, whereas somatic mutations are frequently present in sporadic disease. Currently, early MTC diagnosis followed by total thyroidectomy offers the only possibility of the cure of the disea...

Aim: Radioiodine activities for the treatment of Graves’ disease hyperthyroidism are still subject to discussion, as is the use of a fixed approach over a dosimetric one. We aimed to evaluate our success rate using a personalized dosimetric approach: instead of the “(MBq I-131×g gland mass×100)/(percentage uptake at 24 h)” activity calculation, we further adjusted for factors such as gender, age, diagnosis, 2 h and 4 h radioiodine uptake, previous medi...

Introduction: Amyloidosis results from deposition of insoluble proteins in the extracellular space. It can be both primary or secondary to chronic inflammatory diseases. Although microscopic thyroid involvement is common, cases in which it becomes clinically evident (amyloid goiter) are rare.Case report: Woman, 45 years. In 2009, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease after Bartholin’s gland abscess excision and evaluation for weight loss, anem...

Introduction: The usefulness of acute octreotide suppression test (OST) in the selection of patients with acromegaly for chronic somatostatin analogues (SA) treatment is still controversial.Aim: To investigate the predictive value of OST for long-term responsiveness to long-acting SA.Materials and methods: Retrospective study of 25 drug-naive patients (13 males) with active acromegaly, subjected to an OST (hourly serum GH concentra...

Introduction: Central and Peripheral Diabetes Insipidus are both rare conditions. Combined they may result in serious hypernatremia and water deficit that may pose a therapeutic challenge.Case report: MHBCR, a caucasian female aged 52, was admitted to the Endocrine Department because of serious hypernatremia. A previous diagnosis of pituitary failure and central diabetes insipidus was established 4 years before, after pituitary surgery for a non-secretin...

Autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 2 can be associated with alopecia areata. We present herein a case of a female patient, 42 years old, who suffered from autoimmune thyroid disease with hypothyroidism and autoimmune adrenalitis and who was recently diagnosed with alopecia areata. She accused sudden, asymptomatic hair loss, which she noticed 3 months ago, accompanied by a burning sensation in her scalp. Her menstrual cycles were normal. The clinical examination identified ...

During menopause, plasma lipids change in an unfavourable way to a more atherogenic pattern with, increased total and LDL-cholesterol and decreased HDL cholesterol concentrations. Women with POI show increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality regardless of the cause of the ovarian insufficiency. The treatment of premature ovarian failure in patients presenting extremely low HLD-C is a real challenge.We present the case of a 29 ye...