Endocrine Abstracts

Background: PET/CT scan with 18F-fluoro-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F–DOPA) is an emerging useful tool in medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) patients with high calcitonin (CTN) values. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential usefulness of 18F-DOPA-PET/CT in MTC patients with biochemical incomplete response (BiR) (detectable CTN values and negative/indeterminate findings at CT scan with i.v. contrast).Materials a...

We report the case of a 34-year-old woman with a personal history of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) since she was 9 years old. Very poor chronic metabolic control stands out despite multiple insulin schemes with multiple complications: nephropathy, retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy. She was admitted to the hospitalization floor due to diabetic ketoacidosis. At admission Hba1c of 15.3%. During admission after treatment with IV insulin, improvement in glycemic control. Nine ...

Background: The diagnosis of PHPT and chronic HypoPT is still challenging, mainly due to the wide spectrum of clinical and biochemical presentation and the lack of validated diagnostic index in literature. The serum Ca/P ratio has been proposed as an accurate tool to diagnose PHPT in a small sample of patients, while no data is available about its possible application for HypoPT.Aim: To validate the serum Ca/P ratio as a diagnostic index for PHPT and to ...

Introduction: The silencing mechanisms of corticotroph tumors (CT) remain unclear. The most feasible hypothesis lies in a post-transcriptional deregulation of the POMC gene, precursor of ACTH. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression through their inhibitory action on messenger RNA. miRNAs capable of inhibiting the expression of POMC have been described at the level of neurons of the hypot...

It is known that adult growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is associated with oxidative stress (OS): both GH and IGF-1 exert antioxidant functions. OS is in turn related to systemic inflammation and cardiovascular/oncological risk. Discordant data concerning GH effects on antioxidants are reported. Moreover, no data are available in partial GHD, which can induce cardiovascular alterations. To evaluate oxidative damage on macromolecules and systemic inflammation, 80 patients, studi...

Introduction: Previous results of our group, presented in the ECE last year, showed a lower gene expression of proconvertase PC1/3, involved in the processing of POMC, in silent corticotroph tumors (sCT) than in functioning ones (fCT), overall and in microadenomas. The aim of the present study was to quantify the protein expression of convertases involved in the processing of POMC (PC1/3) and in the degradation of ACTH (PC2, CPE and PAM) in a series of CT.</p...

Introduction: Silent somatotroph tumors (sST) are a pituitary neuroendocrine tumor subtype with positive immunostaining for growth hormone (GH) but without the presence of acromegaly. Unlike silent corticotroph tumors, there is little information in the literature on sST. The aim of the present study was to study the demographic, clinical and molecular characteristics in a series of ST in order to compare sST and functioning ST (fST).Methods: We have stu...

Acromegalic osteopathy is an emerging complication of chronic GH excess characterized by increase in bone turnover, deterioration in bone microarchitecture and high risk of vertebral fractures (VFs). Medical therapies may exert direct effects on peripheral targets leading to improvement of clinical outcomes regardless of biochemical control of acromegaly. In this longitudinal study, we compared the effects pegvisomant (PegV) and somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) on VF risk ...

Introduction: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is one of the most frequent forms of malignancy. Because of its favourable outcome and low mortality rates, identifying prognostic factors has been a challenge. Several risk stratification systems have been developed. Most of them include demographic and tumour specific features, as well as extrathyroidal extension. Our objective was to compare clinical characteristics between DTC patients with and without remission.<p clas...

Berardinelli-Seip syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by generalized lipoatrophy, extreme insulin resistance with dyslipidaemia in childhood and development of diabetes and hepatic steatosis in adolescence. The metabolic derangements can be severe and lead to substantial comorbidities, including acute pancreatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, and premature cardiovascular disease. Other manifestations can include polycystic ovarian syndrome, acanthosis nigricans, a...