Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is a functional catecholamine producing tumor that originates from adrenal chromaffin cells and is an extremely rare cause of ectopic Cushing syndrome. We report clinical case of adrenal incidentaloma with the evidence of both pheochromocytoma and sub-clinical Cushing’s syndrome.Observation: A fifty-two year-old female patient was referred to our institution because of an incidentally discovered right adrenal mass. Al...

Overt hypercortisolism causes reduction in bone mass and density. The effects of subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) on bone markers and structure are still debated. We therefore studied 56 patients with adrenal incidentaloma: group A=35 (20 F 15 M, age 43–79, mean 64.6±1.5; BMI 29.9±0.9 kg/m2) without evidence of hypercortisolism, and group B=21 (10 F 11 M, age 51–76, mean 63.4±1.9, BMI 28.0±1.2 kg/m2) with SCS (i.e. w...

Introduction: Cushing’s disease (CD) is a potentially fatal disease caused by corticotrophic adenoma of the pituitary gland. Crooke Cell Adenomas (CCA) are a rare variant characterized by cytoplasmic ring deposits of cytokeratin filaments. They are usually aggressive macroadenomas with a higher rate of recurrence and malignancy.Clinical case: A 36 year old man, with 34 kg weight gain and uncontrolled hypertension for 4 years presented at the Emerge...

Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is considered the most common autoimmune disease and the predominant cause of hypothyroidism in iodine sufficient countries. HT may appear clinically in approximately 0.1–2% of the population.Aim: The study in hand aimed at assessing the role of thyroid ultrasonography in the diagnosis of HT patients discriminating them from other causes of hypothyroidism. A scoring system of sonographic findings was a...

Introduction: Graves’ thyrotoxicosis and Addison’s disease are disorders with a strong auto-immune basis. Primary hypothyroidism and Addison’s disease are recognised components of polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type II (PGA-II). Despite its autoimmune etiology, Graves disease is not commonly associated with PGA-II. We present a case of a patient with newly diagnosed Graves’ disease presenting in incipient adrenal crisis due to unrecognized Addison’s...

Glucocorticoid (GC) excess is associated with significant brain morphological changes including loss of volume and cerebral atrophy. These effects correlate with the degree and duration of GC elevation1. The neuropsychological abnormalities associated with GC excess, however, remain poorly understood2. Patients with Cushing’s syndrome represent a useful model in which to study the effects of severe and prolonged GC excess.We pr...

We describe two cases of Conn’s syndrome both of whom had hyperprolactinaemia of which one was associated with pituitary adenoma, possibly as part of MEN 1.The first patient was a man aged 52 who presented with hypertension present for 10 years and a marginally low serum potassium. He was on doxazosin, lisinopril, candesartan and celiprolol. His Aldosterone/Renin ratio (8500:1) was very high suggestive of primary hyperaldosteronism. The patient was ...

ObjectiveThis explorative study is concerned with assessing the psychosocial impact of living with a pituitary condition. In collaboration with the Pituitary Foundation, who work to understand and represent the experiences of patients, this study explored the psychosocial issues that are evident for and identified by patients with a pituitary condition (anxiety, depression and appearance related distress).Method<p class="abstex...

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a disease entity that through hypercortisolism affects all body’s tissues leading to increased morbidity, decreased quality of life and mortality. Muscles are among the tissues primarily affected. However, data on the impact of endogenous hypercortisolism on functional muscle capacity and daily physical activity levels are scarce. We studied 23 subjects with endogenous CS (mean age: 40.73±2.17 years) and 22 healthy aged and sex matched...

Background: Cushing’s disease (CD) may be associated with equivocal results on biochemical investigations.Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of dexamethazone suppression tests in the diagnostic work-up of CD.Patients and methods: Seventy patients with CD [median age 38 yrs(16–76), 53 females] presenting between 1976–2005 were studied. 24-hr urinary free cortisol (UFC), overnight (oDST) (1 mg at 23:00 h), low dose (LDDST...