Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The current cut-offs to diagnose adrenal insufficiency (AI) have been established using outdated immunoassays. More modern methods have demonstrated less cross-reactivity with other steroids. The aim of our study was to evaluate the correlation between the cortisol assay Roche Cortisol I (R1), the newly available Roche Cortisol II (R2) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), the gold standard procedure for the measurement of steroids.<p cl...

IntroductionThe management of patients with adrenal incidentaloma (AI) and mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS) is debated. This randomized study aimed to evaluate the effects of adrenalectomy on arterial hypertension (AH), glucose and lipid metabolism.MethodsWe consecutively evaluated 626 AI patients (referred to 3 Italian Centers between 06/2016 and 02/2020). According to the inclusion criteria, we enr...

IntroductionIrisin is a molecule secreted from skeletal muscle and contributes to maintenance of metabolic homeostasis leading to increased energy expenditure and reducing the risk of obesity and diabetes. Literature data suggest that patients with Cushing disease have lower irisin values than controls and remission of hypercortisolism increases these values. Moreover, other plasma inflammation markers implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, i...

Background: Serum inflammation-based scores can predict clinical outcomes in several cancer types, including adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). They may also be altered in benign adrenocortical tumours and correlate with cortisol excess. It is unclear whether the inflammation-based score alterations in ACC reflects malignancy, steroid excess, or both.Methods: A total of 490 patients were included (429 [87.6%] with adrenocortical adenoma [ACA] and 61 [12.4%]...

Introduction: In patients with unilateral adrenal incidentaloma (AI) and mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS) the best therapeutic approach is still a matter of debate. The only available randomized study showed a short-term beneficial effect of surgery on diabetes and hypertension. Importantly, recent data demonstrated that MACS is associated to an increased risk of mortality, especially due to cardiovascular causes.Study aim: to evaluate, in the m...

Background: Among differentiated thyroid cancers, follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most prevalent, representing 10-15% of cases. Histopathological features, tumour size, multifocality, presence of lymphnode metastasis at diagnosis are the most impacting features affecting clinical outcome. Tumour microenvironment (TME) may have an important ancillary role for disease progression. We present two cases of FTC with biochemical and structural persistence of disease...

Background: fragility fractures (FX) occur frequently after lung transplantation (TX), with a higher rate (15-20%) in the first two years, which decreases subsequently. Patients affected from cystic fibrosis (CF) seem to have a lower FX risk in the first two years after TX as compared with those affected with other lung diseases (nCF). The aim of our study is to evaluate and compare the long-term skeletal outcome in CF and nCF patients after TX.Methods: ...

Most adrenal incidentalomas are benign and can be divided into nonfunctioning adrenal tumors (NFAT) and tumors with mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS). Several studies suggest that MACS may result in an increased risk for mortality and cardiometabolic disease. The cardiometabolic risk in MACS is possibly related to the increased frequency of cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HT) induced by cortisol excess. This is confirmed by ...

Objective: The identification of hyperandrogenism represents the cornerstone for the assessment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOs). However, its definition has always been troubling, mostly because of the poor accuracy shown by routine androgens assays. As suggested by literature, the application of more precise steroid measurement methods (such as liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, LC-MS/MS) could improve the diagnostic workup. The aim of our study is to evaluat...

The cAMP signaling pathway plays a major role in the pathogenesis of cortisol-producing adrenocortical adenomas (CPA). In adrenocortical cells cAMP induces dramatic changes in cell morphology accompanied by actin cytoskeleton rearrangements that precede steroidogenesis, the causal relationship between these events being still undefined. In this study we investigated cAMP effects on cytoskeleton rearrangements and steroidogenic response in mouse (Y1) and human adrenocortical tu...