Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The LHR is a crucial mediator for normal sexual development and fertility. In the marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus), LHR type II, lacking exon 10, is the native receptor type. In addition to the testis, the LHR is expressed in the adrenal gland where its function remains unknown.Aim: To characterise marmoset LHR expression at different stages of puberty in the testis and adrenal gland and examine different splice variants in the tes...

Background: The rare 46, XX-male syndrome has to be distinguished from more frequent forms of hypogonadism, especially the Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY). We report 11 cases of SRY-positive XX-males in comparison to 101 age-matched Klinefelter patients and 78 age-matched normal men in a case-control study.Methods: The comparison included results from the physical examination, endocrinological data, semen analysis, cytogenetic and molecular genetic findin...

Introduction: Hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) regulates mammalian reproductive system. It binds receptors (GnRHRs) expressed in gonadotrope cells of anterior pituitary, regulating the synthesis and secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). GnRHR is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) coupled to Gαq/11 protein and, to a lesser extent, to Gαi/Gαs proteins, simultaneously activating Ca2+, β-cate...

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (HyperPT) and primary hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) are often underdiagnosed. Several strategies have been investigated in the past in order to identify diagnostic parameters, although the diagnosis of both HyperPT and HypoPT remains challenging so far, especially in asymptomatic patients. Calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) are inversely related together, thus the Ca/P ratio could be an useful tool to define these conditions. Recently, we pro...

In Portugal, no relevant epidemiologic data exists relative to the management and level of control of diabetic patients.TEDDI, a non-interventional cross-sectional study, allowed to characterize the usual management of type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D) diabetes using a standardized questionnaire in 1775 patients (F: 47.5%; T2D: 80.8%) aged 18 years or older, visiting their diabetes specialist (n=180).Data was obtained for metabo...

Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) management profoundly changed across years, with increasing emphasis on stringent glycaemic control. While it is well demonstrated that the progressive improvement of glycaemic control allows a tighter command of diabetes-related complications, the positive implications thereof on reproductive functions are still unclear. Indeed, it is well known that oligomenorrhea and amenorrhea are more frequently detected in young women with T1DM...

Introduction: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 varies widely, depending on population characteristics, country, age and disease severity. Moreover, pre-existing DM seems to double the risk of both critical COVID-19 and mortality.Aim: To evaluate incidence and mortality risk of COVID-19 in a large diabetic population in Northern Italy.Methods: A retrospective, observational, bi...

Background: Persons with assigned either male (AMAB) or female (AFAB) sex at birth might wish to obtain feminization or masculinization, respectively. To this purpose, hormonal treatment with sex hormones must be tailored to each subject. Several studies and the European Society of Endocrinology guidelines tried to identify the optimal hormonal treatment in both AMAB and AFAB subjects. However, the clinical management in the long term follow-up remains challenging. Many treatm...

Introduction: Male idiopathic infertility represents a therapeutic challenge for physicians, since a targeted aetiological treatment does not exist. Several hormonal and non-hormonal therapies have been proposed so far to increase pregnancy rates. Among hormonal therapies, exogenous follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) administration shows the most convincing physiological rationale in the face of a clinical efficacy below expectations. Indeed, from evidences available in the li...

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) represents the most frequent sexual dysfunction. Among several possible ED aetiologies, vascular ED (vED) presents the greatest implications for global individual health, resulting an early hallmark of cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, vED was demonstrated associated with a 1.25 times greater risk of developing major cardiovascular diseases. Alongside cardiovascular aspect, the evaluation of patients health, measured by the comorbidities nu...