Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism can be challenging especially when surgery is mandatory and imaging techniques can not find the adenoma. PEt colina is a non-invasive diagnostic test that creates images of the parathyroid glands and detects abnormal activity. It is increasingly used and especially useful when there are no pathological findings in parathyroid scintigraphy.Methods: This is a retrospective observational study with data fro...

Objective: Environmental rhythmicity seems able to affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in animals, but the extent of its influence in humans is still controversial. This study was designed to evaluate seasonal fluctuations of the main hormones involved in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in men, using a big data approach.Methods: An observational, retrospective, big data trial was carried out, including all testosterone, luteinizing hor...

Background: Many chemicals present within the environment, as well as natural and artificial components of our diet, have the potential to interfere with the physiological role of hormones, interfering with hormone biosynthesis, signalling or metabolism. In the last years AMH, a protein secreted by granulosa cells, has emerged as a reliable marker of ovarian reserve. It is largely accepted the influence of age and smoking on AMH serum levels, although a clear effect of environ...

Introduction: Giant prolactinomas are rare pituitary tumours, more frequently found in men (9:1), defined by an unusually large size (>4 cm), significant extrasellar extension and prolactin levels above 1000 ng/ml. Although dopamine agonists (DA) are the first-line treatment, combined therapy with DA and surgery, or rarely radiotherapy, may be necessary particularly when tumour volume control is not achieved.Case presentation: A 60-year-old woman, wa...

Background: Craniopharyngiomas (CPs) are epithelial tumors that typically arise in the suprasellar region. They are associated with high levels of morbidity related to tumour location and/or treatment-related injuries. Recent discoveries have also led to a better understanding of CP development and potential treatments.Objetive: To analyse the clinical, pathological, molecular features and outcomes of patients with CP.Design: Retro...

Introduction: Pituitary adenomas represent 95% of all sellar masses. Spindle cell oncocytoma (SCO), a rare histopathological entity (0.4% of all sellar tumours), clinically presents as a non-functional pituitary adenoma. According to WHO 2016 Classification of Tumours of the CNS it is a Grade l tumour, but prognosis remains uncertain since recurrence is frequently seen among the few cases reported.Clinical case: A 59 year-old man presented with progressi...

Background and aim of the study: Several ultrasound (US) classifications for estimating thyroid nodules risk have been proposed. Since most of them are hardly applicable in clinical practice, we created a local tool, named Modena classification (MC), considering US characteristics and clinician subjective impression. The aim is to verify the diagnostic accuracy of MC and to compare it to US classifications of American Thyroid Association(ATA) (1) and British Thyroid Associatio...

Luteinizing hormone (LH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are two glycoprotein hormones regulating development and reproduction. Despite binding the same receptor (LHCGR), they elicit different intracellular signaling. In vitro non-equivalence of hCG and LH was previously demonstrated in human primary granulosa cells. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of LH and hCG in mouse primary Leydig cells in vitro, naturally expressing the murine rec...

Background: PHPT is often overlooked/underdiagnosed. Several strategies (biochemical markers alone or combined in complex algorithms) have been investigated to easily diagnose/screen PHPT, but PHPT diagnosis remains challenging at present, especially in asymptomatic patients. As serum calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) are inversely related in PHPT, the Ca/P ratio could be a good candidate tool for PHPT diagnosis. Surprisingly, no literature data on Ca/P ratio are available, des...

Background: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is caused by endogenous cortisol excess and is associated with significant morbidity. Twenty-four-hour urinary cortisol is one of the most useful tools to diagnose CS although it has limitations, especially in “mild” and “subclinical” forms of cortisol excess. We hypothesized that given the diurnal rhythm of physiological cortisol secretion, night-time urinary glucocorticoid excretion should be lower than day-time ex...