Endocrine Abstracts

Somatostatin analogs (SSA) effectively control symptoms in neuroendocrine tumours (NET), besides showing antiproliferative activity. In progressive or metastatic NET, increasing SSA dose or shortening the dosing interval are common clinical practice, though empirical. Aim of this study is to evaluate efficacy and safety of high-dose SSA treatment in patients with progressive disease under standard SSA dose. Twenty-one patients (median age 56.8 years) with NET of different orig...

Introduction: FSH acts on its receptor (FSHR) resulting in signal transduction activation, gene expression and steroidogenesis. The FSHR common SNP p.N680S is a marker of gonadal response in vivo. However, in vitro dose–response experiments failed to demonstrate the molecular basis thereof so far. In this study, we systematically investigated whether p.N680S mediates different kinetics of FSH response in vitro.Des...

Introduction: The main goal in the treatment of acromegaly is achieving biochemical and tumor mass control. Therapeutic options include surgery, medical treatment and, in selected cases, radiotherapy. A GH receptor (GHR) variant that differs for the genomic retention or exclusion (d3GHR) of exon 3 is present in about 50% of general population and its presence is related to a greater sensitivity to GH.Materials and methods: We describe a series of 118 pat...

Introduction: While the association of Klinefelter’s syndrome (KS) with infertility is well known, very few investigations have evaluated the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in KS. The aim of the present study is to systematically analyse the prevalence of KS in a consecutive series of adult male patients consulting for sexual problems and to investigate its specific correlates.Methods: Among a consecutive series of 1386 patients (mean age 48.9&#17...

GH and IGF-I exert an important role in the control of bone formation. Osteopenia and osteoporosis are a frequent recurrence in patients with thalassemia. Due to the high prevalence of GH deficiency (GHD) in adult thalassemic patients (Scacchi et al., Clin Endocrinol 2007), we investigated the possible role of GH - IGF-I abnormalities in the pathogenesis of the osteopenia/osteoporosis of this disease.Study: Sixty-four adult thalassemic pati...

Myelolipomas are rare benign tumours resulting from myeloid and adipose mature cells proliferation, both elements have a clonal origin from a common precursor. Myelolipomas predominantly involve the adrenal gland but may develop in extra-adrenal sites. They are hormonally inactive but may coexist with active diseases such as adrenogenital syndrome. They are often asymptomatic but rarely they cause symptoms due to their size or spontaneous retroperitoneal haemorrhage. The myelo...

The GH/IGF-I axis function are reported to ameliorate after weight-loss. Bariatric surgery leads to a significant weight loss in morbidly obese patients. We investigated the relationships between GH/IGF-I axis and body composition in 20 morbidly obese females (BMI: 44.8±4.7; waist circumference (W) 119.5±7.2 cm, age 33.7±11.7 yrs) with a normal glucose tolerance, before and after laparoscopic silicone adjustable-gastric banding (LASGB). The GH axis was evaluated...

According to incidence data from Italian cancer registers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women even considering skin non-melanoma cancers, lung and breast cancers. Moreover it represents the third absolute leading cause of cancer death in women and the fourth in men. Although data on Italian population regarding the role of estrogens in colorectal cancer have not yet been collected, several strands of evidence from international epidemiologi...

Tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) or ‘oncogenic osteomalacia’ is a rare paraneoplastic disorder, usually resulting from Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (FGF23) oversecretion by a benign small ‘phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor’, causing hypophosphatemia and reduced 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D synthesis. Calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels are usually normal, but secondary/tertiary hyperparathyroidism has been reported in up to 5% of the cases, mainly due to 1,...

Pheochromocytoma is a rare catecholamine-secreting tumour arising from chromaffin cells in the adrenal medulla and one of the main causes of endocrine hypertension. We here report the case of a 48-year old man admitted to the Internal Medicine Department for evaluation of resistant hypertension. The patient presented with headache, sweating, palpitations, pitting edema, hypertension and hypokalemia both resistant to conventional polytherapy. He was therefore investigated for e...