Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, affecting both sexes. Awareness and prevention practices aiming to control cardiovascular risk in women remain inadequate. On the other hand, circulating amyloid β 1-40 (Aβ1-40) is a proatherogenic peptide, closely linked with the process of aging. We aimed to evaluate the possible association between the progression of atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women and the role of Aβ1-40 ...

Background: A large body of evidence is supporting that the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events is increasing signfiicantly after the menopausal transition. Primary prevention practices continue to propose evolving algorithms, in an attempt to accurately estimate the actual female cardiovascular risk at midlife. Irrespectively of these attempts, considerable unrecognized cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk remains unexplained, beyond traditional risk factors (TRFs). On th...

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is the most common disease in the spectrum of metabolic disorders, with its prevalence increasing significantly in recent years. It is estimated that by 2035, 592 million people will have type 2 diabetes. People with type DM2 have high rates of depression and a quality of life that is poorer than that of the general population. Another important factor in the quality of life of people with DM2 is the compliance of patients with the ...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease that shows a rapid increase over the recent years and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Thus new ways of prevention and treatment are needed and constantly being developed. As a lifelong challenge, DM is likely to affect one’s life in a variety of ways. It requires daily planning and decision making. Self-care is a vital component of the disease. Knowledge consists of information about the disease and its manage...

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) affects 1–2% couples, and is defined as ≧3 consecutive pregnancy losses before 20-weeks’ gestation. RPL is caused by foetal chromosomal abnormalities, or maternal factors such as thrombophilia. It was recently reported that men with RPL have high levels of sperm DNA fragmentation (a marker of infertility); however, the cause of this damage is currently not known. Seminal plasma has high levels of granulocyte-derived o...

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) affects 1–2% couples, and is defined as ≧3 consecutive pregnancy losses before 20-weeks’ gestation. RPL is caused by foetal chromosomal abnormalities, or maternal factors such as thrombophilia. It was recently reported that men with RPL have high levels of sperm DNA fragmentation (a marker of infertility); however, the cause of this damage is currently not known. Seminal plasma has high levels of granulocyte-derived o...

Background: Arterial stiffness is a well-established surrogate marker of vascular properties and arterial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). We aimed to investigate whether optimization of DM2 therapy with, additional to metformin, novel antiglycemic agents may improve arterial wall properties and achieve better glycemic control.Methods: We enrolled 99 consecutive patients (male gender=63.3%) receiving metformin for DM2 who did ...

Introduction: Ovarian senescence and fluctuating levels of sex hormones is associated with metabolic derangement and central obesity. The aim of this study was to explore the association between serum levels of sex hormones and metabolic health in non-obese postmenopausal women.Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 457 non-obese postmenopausal (BMI <30 kg/m2) women, retrieved from the Menopause Clinic of Aret...

Purpose: HPA axis activation resulting in increased cortisol production by the adrenals is a crucial part of the response to critical illness. The action of cortisol may also be modulated at the tissue level, through changes in the availability of the free fraction and modifications of the glucocorticoid receptor activity. It has been proposed that tissue resistance to glucocorticoids may occur, at least in some patients, and relate to insufficient anti-inflammatory activity a...

Objectives: To estimate the body mass index (BMI) distribution among Greek female adolescents in 2012 and to compare it with data from 2000, to find associations of obesity with dietary and social factors, as well as to determine the prevalence of acne, hirsutism and menstrual irregularities in the same population.Methods: All female students (n=380) aged 12–18 years of two randomly selected high schools, after obtaining a written consent f...