Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Methimazole is the thionamide compound most used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism due to its efficacy, commodity and security. Severe side effects are rare, although potentially fatal: agranulocytosis in 0.1–0.5% and toxic hepatitis in 0.1%Aims: To characterize the patients admitted in the endocrinology ward for the last 10 years for severe complications of methimazole therapy.Material and Methods: Retrospecti...

Introduction: Cushing’s disease (CD) is a Grave disease that requires a multidisciplinary and individualized treatment approach.Case report: We describe the case of a 31-years old female patient with Cushing disease diagnosed in 2007. She initially complained of weight fluctuations, amenorrheia, rounded face with plethora and acne, for 1 year duration. Analytically: 0800 h plasma cortisol of 14 μg/dl (5–25) and 2300 h 15 μg/dl, ACTH 1...

Introduction: Our aim was to determine the comparable value of thyroglobulin in the washout of lymph node fine-needle aspirate (FNATg) and fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB).Materials and methods: We included 29 patients (37 FNAB) with history of differentiated thyroid cancer who underwent total thyroidectomy and were found to have suspicious cervical lymph nodes during follow-up. The referred population was evaluated on what concerns to gender, age, s...

Background: Pituitary apoplexy occurs when a tumor undergoes acute hemorrhage, infarct, or both. This often leads to acute severe symptoms (clinical) but can also occur without them and diagnosed on CT/MRI, surgery, pathology (subclinical). To investigate clinical and subclinical apoplexy in nonfunctioning tumors (n=221) from our database.Design: Retrospective review of clinical presentation, tumor characteristics and outcome of 24 patients, 11 fe...

Introduction: The association of autoimmune diseases in the same individual is common. It is well documented that Graves’ disease (GD) is associated to various autoimmune diseases, including: pernicious anemia, vitiligo, type 1 diabetes, Addison’s disease, systemic sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Sjogren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. In addition, primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) may be associated with rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogr...

Pituitary carcinoma is rare (0.1–0.2% of pituitary tumors), with a poor prognosis. It usually presents as invasive and secretory (ACTH or prolactin) macroadenoma. The diagnosis is confirmed by the presence of metastases. The latency period between the diagnosis of adenoma and carcinoma is variable (9.5 years for corticotrophinoma). The treatment includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.We report a 58-year-old male, complaining of visual distu...

Introduction: Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHLD) is a rare autosomal-dominant syndrome, characterized by the development of multiple cysts and tumours, namely retinal and central nervous system hemangioblastomas, renal cell carcinoma (RCC), phaeochromocytoma, pancreatic endocrine tumours (PET) and endolymphatic sac tumours.Most germinal mutations are missense, related to a high risk for presenting phaechromocytoma (specially if Arg167Trp mutation im...

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered a rare cause of pituitary dysfunction. Recently, some retrospective studies demonstrated that TBI-mediated hypopituitarism is more frequent than previously known. However, its prevalence and natural history are still unclear.Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of hypopituitarism 1 year after TBI and the association between the seriousness of the traumatism and the pituitary deficits.<p class...

Introduction: High-resolution US and US FNA are techniques of great relevance in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. They are being used much more often by endocrinologists all over the world. In our Endocrinology Department, we started them in 2006; since then they have been progressively amplified. We present our results of US FNA performed from January 2007 until December 2009.Patients and methods: Two thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven FNA were ...

Context: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a common microvascular complication that affects approximately 40% of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). This complication is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in patients starting renal replacement therapy and is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Although a tight glycemic control is able to reduce the development and delay the progression of DKD, current therapies are still not totally effective ...