Endocrine Abstracts

There are growing evidences suggesting the existence of intra-tumor heterogeneity within the same patient, leading to a different genetic pattern between primary tumour and metastases.We report a paradigmatic example of genetic heterogeneity in thyroid cancer (TC). A 42 years old female patient was submitted, for a follicular TC, to total thyroidectomy and lymphadenectomy followed by radioiodine residue ablation in late 1999. In 2000 and 2001 diagnostic ...

Background: OPKO Biologics is a clinical-stage public company developing long-acting therapeutic proteins utilizing CTP technology. The technology involves fusion of the C-terminal peptide of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is highly O-glycosylated, to the target protein. CTP enabled the production of a long-acting human growth hormone (hGH) (MOD-4023), which supports a single weekly injection in growth hormone-deficient patients. MOD-4023 is manufactured as a non-vi...

One of the main consequences of vessel pruning and inhibition of neovessel growth produced by angiogenesis inhibitors is increased intra-tumor hypoxia. Nevertheless, growing evidence indicates that tumor cells escape from this hypoxic environment to better nourished locations, presenting hypoxia as a positive stimulus for invasion. Indeed, we and others have described a pro-invasive and pro-metastatic adaptation to VEGFR-targeted antiangiogenic therapy that implicates hypoxia ...

Introduction: Children with TPS and/or ICDI represent a diagnostic and management conundrum. Agreed radiological criteria for TPS are lacking.Aims: To longitudinally characterize the neuroradiological features of children presenting with TPS and/or ICDI due to different aetiologies (oncological, inflammatory, idiopathic).Methods: We searched the terms ‘thickened pituitary stalk’ or ‘idiopathic diabetes insipidus&#146...

Elongation factor, RNA polymerase II, 2 (ELL2) is an RNA Pol II elongation factor with functional properties similar to ELL that can interact with the prostate tumor suppressor ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2). In murine models, deletion of Ell2 induced prostate intraepithelial neoplasia similar to that induced by deletion of Eaf2. Since ELL2 and EAF2 can functionally interact and appear to have similar function in regulating prostate homeostasis, we investigated the impact of c...

Patient is a seventy year old Egyptian female with past medical history of coronary artery disease, systolic heart failure, chronic kidney disease stage 3, and a benign pheochromocytoma previously worked up at a neighboring hospital, who was admitted for dyspnea and subjective fever intermittently for the past two weeks. Chest x-ray revealed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. She was treated for community acquired pneumonia. Four days after admission patient has worsening respir...

Traditionally, oestradiol measurement is performed by immunoassay. The sensitivity of these assays is not sufficiently sensitive for certain patient groups such as males, post-menopausal females and children. There is also a potential for interference from structurally related compounds or heterophilic antibodies. LC–MS/MS is an attractive alternative as it has increased sensitivity and specificity.We reviewed the requests for LC–MS/MS analysis...

Background: Acromegaly treatment options include transsphenoidal surgery (TSS), medical management with somatostatin analogues (SSAs), growth hormone (GH) receptor antagonists and dopamine agonists, radiotherapy or a combination of these, depending on symptom nature and severity, tumour size, age and health status. In 2014 the Endocrine Society published guidelines for management of acromegaly.Methods: To describe current UK practice following guideline ...

The gonadotropic hormones, LH and FSH are critical regulators of normal sexual functions including steroidogenesis and gametogenesis. Their essential role is underscored by the development of various hypogonadal phenotypes arising from genetic mutations. Constitutive activation of their cognate receptors also disturbs their function. We earlier showed that transgenic expression of an activating mouse Fshr mutant (mFSHRD580H) in granulosa c...

Adrenal venous sampling (AVS) is regarded as the gold-standard for the study of lateralisation of primary aldosteronism (PA) after its biochemical diagnosis. After catheterisation of both adrenal veins, confirmed by ratio of cortisol concentration in each adrenal vein and peripheral vein (selectivity index (SI)), lateralization is accepted if aldosterone/cortisol (A/C) ratio between both adrenal veins is over 3–4 (lateralization index (LI)), particularly if non-dominant v...