Endocrine Abstracts

The COVID-19 pandemic is significantly affecting the care of chronic conditions globally. Acromegaly is a rare chronic condition with a prevalence ranging between 2.8–13.7 cases/100.000 people. Acromegaly management requires a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals (HCPs), mainly including endocrinologists, neurosurgeons, and specialized endocrine nurses. Frequent consultations, particularly during early stages of the disease, and pre/post-surgery are necess...

Recent studies demonstrated that the calcium/calmodulin dependent kinase 2 (CaMKII) is involved in the regulation of proliferation and survival of epithelial cells, were it phosphorylates RAF-1 and modulates MAPK pathway. A endogenous CaMKII inhibitor (hCaKIINα) is expressed in some cell types. It is down-expressed in colon and in ovarian cancer where it inversely correlates with the disease extension.Aim of our study is to determine the possible ro...

Introduction: The impact of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on male infertility has been poorly studied. We recently reported that MetS is associated with hypogonadism, poor sperm morphology and testis ultrasound inhomogeneity. However, the possible associations between MetS and prostate-related symptoms and signs are still lacking.Methods: Out of 351 subjects without genetic abnormalities previously evaluated for couple infertility clinically and by scrotal u...

Objective: To verify whether, in a large sample of male subjects seeking medical care for sexual dysfunction (SD), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) might represent a reliable marker of testosterone bioactivity, even downstream to its receptor binding.Design: Cross-sectional study.Methods: A consecutive series of 3156 patients attending our Unit for SD studied. Among them, only subjects without history of prostate disease and with PS...

Introduction: Hypoactive sexual desire is defined as a persistent or recurrent deficient or absent sexual fantasies or desire for sexual activity which should not be comorbid with other medical conditions or with the use of psychoactive medications. Reduced libido is a symptom referring more to a reduction in sexual drive for sexual activity. The aim of the present study is to investigate the risk factors of primary reduced libido (i.e. not associated with conditions causing l...

Introduction: The classification of subjects as low or high cardiovascular (CV) risk is usually performed by risk engines, based upon multivariate prediction algorithms. However, their accuracy in predicting major adverse CV events (MACE) is lower in high-risk populations, since they take into account only conventional risk factors.Aim: To evaluate the accuracy of Progetto Cuore risk engine in predicting MACE in subjects with erectile dysfunction (ED), a...

Introduction: The relational domain of erectile dysfunction (ED) is difficult to investigate in a clinical setting. We developed and validated SIEDY, a 13-item structured interview, which assesses, beside the organic (Scale1) and intra-psychic (Scale 3) domains, also the relation one (Scale 2). We previously established a pathological threshold for SIEDY Scale 1 and 3.Aim: To identify a pathological threshold of SIEDY Scale 2.Metho...

Introduction: Thyroid nodules are very common and elucidating the nature of these thyroid nodules is an important task.Methodology: Patients who had an ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration (FNA) of a thyroid nodule between January 2008 and June 2012 were retrospectively audited and their ultrasonographic and biochemical characteristics where analysed. For those patients who were operated nodule characteristics were correlated with thyroid histology.<...

Introduction: The disorders of orgasm/ejaculation include premature ejaculation, delayed ejaculation and perceived ejaculate volume reduction (PEVR). To explore the specific associations of PEVR in subjects with erectile dysfunction (ED).Methods: A consecutive series of 3141 subjects (mean age 51.6±13.1 years old) was studied. Among these, 71 have been excluded because they underwent prostate surgery. Different clinical and biochemical factors were ...

Introduction: Perceived reduced sleep-related erections (PR-SREs), along with erectile dysfunction (ED) and hypoactive sexual desire, have been recently recognized as the most important symptoms characterizing late onset hypogonadism in community-dwelling European men. However, the clinical correlates of PR-SREs have not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychobiological correlates of PR-SREs in a large series of subjects consulting for ED....