Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Thyroid nodule in the pediatric age group is rare, but the rate of malignancy is much higher than adult population. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is an accurate test commonly used to determine whether thyroid nodules are malignant in adults. However, less is known about its diagnostic accuracy for this purpose in children.Aim: To characterize the outcomes of FNAB of nodular thyroid disease at a pediatric tertiary-care institution and t...

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a rare, acute, nonischemic cardiomyopathy causing transient systolic disfunction of the apical and/or mid segments of left ventricle and is commonly associated with emotional and physical stress. Thyrotoxicosis is a rare cause of this condition, resulting from direct and indirect action of thyroid hormones on the cardiovascular system.Case presentation: A 43-year-old woman presented at emergency room with chest pai...

Introduction: Given the significant impact of thyroid function on body weight, energy metabolism and adipocytes physiology, our aim was to study the impact of subclinical thyroid dysfunction in plasmatic levels of adipokines and ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule 1).Methods: We evaluated 98 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease divided into three groups: 30 who were euthyroid (TSH=0.35–4.94 UI/ml), 35 with subclinical hypothyroidism (hypoSC,...

Introduction: Rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis is a rare invasive fungal infection more common in diabetic and elderly patients. The presentation is acute, severe and rapidly progressive to disseminated infection. The diagnosis is done by the identification of risk factors, clinical and radiologic signs and tissue biopsy consistent with mucormycosis. The mortality rate is high, so timely diagnosis and intervention lead to better outcomes.Clinical case:...

Background: Transphenoidal surgery is still the best initial therapy for Cushing’s disease (CD), with a high probability of cure and few risks or complications. However, pharmacotherapy has a role as primary or adjunctive therapy: when surgery is delayed, in case of postoperative persistence or recurrence of hypercortisolism, or while waiting for radiotherapy effectiveness. Ketoconazole, a steroidogenesis inhibitor, is nowadays the main drug used to CD control by reducing...

Cysteine cathepsins are endo-lysosomal proteases that play crucial roles in thyroid physiology. However, in thyroid cancer, cathepsin B is overexpressed and secreted into the extracellular space, thus promoting migratory phenotypes of thyroid carcinoma cells through excessive extracellular matrix degradation. In addition, we have shown that N-terminally truncated forms of cathepsins B and V which lack the signal peptide and parts of the pro-peptide are localized to the nuclei ...

Background: Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is an important test for triaging patients with thyroid nodules and differentiating benign from malignant disease. According to Bethesda System Classification, the rate of AUS/FLUS is between 3–6% of all FNA. The malignancy risk is of 5–15%. TSH levels might be associated to the likelihood of malignancy in thyroid nodules according to some studies. Our aim was to establish a possible correlation between TSH level and malignanc...

Introduction: The possible change in the pattern of hormonal secretion by pituitary tumours is a very intriguing issue indeed, notably in the case of corticotroph-cell adenomas.Methods/design: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 1259 consecutive endoscopic endonasal surgical procedures for pituitary adenomas from 1998 to 2013. Of these, 132 were ACTH-secreting adenomas associated with Cushing’s disease (CD) and 44 were silent corticotroph-cel...

Obesity during gestation has been related to predisposition to endocrine and metabolic diseases in the offspring. Regarding reproductive effects, an increase in BMI in pregnant mothers is associated with precocious puberty in their offspring. This has been replicated in animal models of high fat diet (HFD) administration to mothers. Also, gestational obesity has been associated to higher susceptibility to developing breast cancer in the offspring. As both precocious puberty an...

Introduction: Intraoperative identification of neck lesions in patients who have undergone previous neck surgery is particularly difficult, because of operative scarring and distorted anatomy. Radioguided occult lesion localisation (ROLL) involves the preoperative intratumoral ultrasound-guided injection of a radioactive tracer. In the present study, we investigated the efficacy of roll in two patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) who underwent previous neck exploration...