Endocrine Abstracts

Glucose metabolism alterations are frequently observed in acromegalic patients. Somatostatin analogues (SSTA) are the most widely used drugs to treat acromegaly, since they inhibit GH and IGF-1 levels, reduce pituitary mass, but can affect glucose metabolism. Aim of our study was to evaluate glucose metabolism alterations in acromegalic patients cured after surgery and in patients with active disease during treatment with SSTA. We studied 10 patients (group A, 5F, 55.66±1...

Introduction: Adult growth hormone deficiency is associated with fatigue, tiredness and myalgias. The same clinical pattern can often be present in oncological patients during chemotherapy and follow up.Aim of the study: To conduct an extensive neuromuscular investigation of patients with breast cancer (BC), treated with taxol, in an attempt to explain their neuromuscular symptoms, eleven pre-menopausal patients with BC underwent a prospective protocol, ...

Objectives: Recommending general dynamic penile color doppler ultrasound (D-PCDU) screening in patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) has been questioned due to an inadequate cost-benefit ratio. The aim of the present study is to asses the validity of different risk scores in the identification of patients being screened for arteriogenic ED at D-PCDU.Design and methods: A consecutive series of 738 (mean age 53.6±9.2 years) patients with ED was stud...

In a previous study, we demonstrated that the concept of functional ovarian hyperandrogenism (FOH), as documented by the exaggerated 17OHP response to buserelin (GnRH-analogue) does not represent a specific feature of all women with PCOS, being present in less than half of PCOS and is a condition characterized by more severe hyperandrogenemia, glucose-stimulated B-cell insulin secretion and worse insulin resistance. INSL3 is produced in the Leydig cells and at reduced levels i...

Obesity is strictly connected with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). However, we still do not know whether a form of PCOS secondary to obesity exists or whether obesity exacerbates manifestations of the syndrome. To answer this question we contacted seventy obese patients with PCOS that attended our Endocrinology Unit in the last 3 years and that lose weight after at least 6 months of dietary treatment. Sixty-five out of 70 patients agreed to take part to the study and gave th...

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is associated with hypercoagulable state, mainly dependent on corticosteroid-induced increase of von Willebrand factor (VWF) levels, even though this does not affects all patients. In normals plasma VWF levels are genetically determined by ABO blood groups and polymorphisms G/C −1793, C/T −1234, A/G −1185, G/A −1050 of VWF promoter. These SNPs segregate as haplotype 1 (G/C/A/G) and haplotype 2 (C/T/G/A) with genotype 1/1 (GG...

Aim: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in a cohort of young Mediterranean women with PCOS in reproductive age and to evaluate the association of the MS with clinical and biochemical parameters.Setting: Among 200 PCOS (17-31 years) criteria of MS in accordance with the “NCEP-ATPIII” were used to construct 3 groups: no one criteria, 1 or 2 criteria and 3 or more criteria (affected by MS). All p...

In acromegalic patients not suitable for first-line surgical treatment, pharmacotherapy is a valuable choice. Depot somatostatin analogs (SSA) represent efficacious and well-tolerated drugs; however, they normalize hormonal parameters in no more than 65–75%. Pegvisomant (PEGA), a GH receptor antagonist, has been shown to normalize IGF-I levels in more than 90% of patients. We report our experience in 13 acromegalic patients (7 M, 6 F; age: 50.2±3.9 yrs; 7 macroadenom...

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-NCAH) in hyperandrogenic women in the reproductive age attending our Endocrinology Unit and to identify specific phenotypic traits among clinical, biochemical and hormonal features.Setting: Outpatient Unit of Endocrinology, S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital of Bologna, Italy.Patients a...

Objectives: Genomic instability play a role in cancer development through different mechanisms including chromosome fragility and in particular the altered telomere length (TL). Previous studies showed that the presence of short telomeres in the blood was associated with development of sporadic head and neck, bladder, lung, renal and breast cancer. In thyroid cancer, has been demonstrated that familial form of papillary thyroid cancer (FPTC) has shorter telomeres in blood leuk...