Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The relation between vitamin D deficiency and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been rarely addressed in the literature with conflicting results. The aim is to determine the association between maternal serum 25(OH)D and glucose metabolism in Caucasian pregnant women.Patients and methods: In a prospective study 157 pregnant women aged 31.2±5.8 years underwent a 100 g OGTT in the third trimester of pregnancy, during which serum 25...

Several alterations of the metabolic processes develop during sepsis. Adiponectin and resistin are amongst the main adipokines that may contribute to the metabolic adaptations observed in the context of critical illness. However, there is scarce data on the circulating pattern of these adipokines in human sepsis. Therefore we aimed to describe the variation in circulating levels of resistin and adiponectin during the course of sepsis and examine whether they are related to the...

Background: Hormonal activity and insulin resistance (IR) in patients with incidentally discovered bilateral adrenal adenomas (BA) has not been evaluated until now. Therefore, we have investigated cortisol and aldosterone secretion and IR in 29 patients with BA, in 113 patients with unilateral adrenal adenomas (UA) and in 89 healthy subjects (C).Methods: All subjects underwent the following investigation: 1) Low dose dexamethasone suppression test (LDDST...

Adaptation of oxidative metabolism is essential for meeting different energy demands in different tissues, or altered energy demands in response to stressors, such as exposure to cold. The orphan nuclear receptor ERRα (estrogen-related receptor alpha) is implicated in the regulation of energy metabolism. ERRα expression is high in tissues with high oxidative capacity and increased at physiologic states of increased energy demand. Moreover, ERRα activity and expr...

Background and aims: It is well recognized that insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease especially in women, while the role of sex steroids is still controversial. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) represent a unique biological model for the study of the impact of all these factors on cardiovascular system. We aimed to evaluate the degree of low-grade inflammation and atherosclerosis in premenopau...

Introduction: Ganglioneuromas are rare, benign tumors of mature ganglion cells, arising from the sympathetic ganglia and 20% are located in the adrenal medulla, representing 1–4% of adrenal incidentalomas. About 1/3 secrete catecholamines but hypertension and other adrenergic symptoms are rare. About 60% are depicted with 131I- MIBG.Case report: A 72-year-old man was admitted for a left adrenal tumor 9×8 cm, incidentally found in abd...

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine kinase that couples energy and nutrient abundance to cell growth and is critically involved in the onset and progression of diabetes, cancer and ageing. Placental mTOR is involved in nutrient sensing and transfer to the fetus. Animal models suggest that placental mTOR is upregulated in pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes (GDM). Our aim was to characterize expression, and cellular localization of mTOR and whether ...

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and osteoporosis may co-exist in the same individual. However, the exact effect of anti-osteoporotic treatment on glucose metabolism is unknown. We aimed to systematically review the effects of anti-osteoporotic medications on glucose metabolism and the incidence of T2DM.Methods/design: PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE were systematically searched until the 31 of December, 2017.Results: ...

Introduction: In 2014, the British Thyroid Association (BTA) issued guidance on thyroid cancer and introduced a new scoring system for thyroid nodules based on their sonographic appearances (U1-U5). The guidelines specified that nodules with indeterminate or suspicious appearances (U3-U5) should undergo fine needle aspiration (FNA) assessment. This study audits the implementation of the guidelines in our hospital and evaluates any changes in the management of thyroid nodules.<...

Relevance: Due to numerous causes of PA, AVS allows differentiating variant nosological forms of PA. The importance of differential diagnosis is due to the fact that surgery is reasonable only with unilateral variant of PA, while in idiopathic hyperaldosteronism surgery isn’t a method of choice.Purpose: To assess the diagnostic possibilities of using AVS against the background of endogenous stimulation of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in the ea...