Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: POEMS syndrome is a rare multisystemic disorder including polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal plasma-proliferative disorder and skin changes. We aim to describe the course of the endocrine disease in the context of this paraneoplastic syndrome.Methods: 69 patients with POEMS have been under the MDT care in our hospital. Data is currently available for 32 patients who attended the joint haematological/neurological/endocr...

Introduction: Adrenal masses (AM) are being increasingly diagnosed but only a small portion will need surgical treatment.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients referred to the Endocrinology Clinic that underwent adrenalectomy between 1996 and 2023.Results: We included 57 patients. Most AM were diagnosed incidentally (53%) and had a median size of 32 (25) mm. Forty (70%) patients had hormonal hypersecretion (HH): pheocromocyt...

Introduction: Deficiency of 11-beta hydroxylase (11-HD) accounts for 5% of the causes of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), with an incidence of 1:100,000. The classic form phenotype consists in an excess of androgens and mineralocorticoids, which clinically translates into hypertension and hypokalaemia. In boys, there may be an increase in penis size, early adrenarche, increased growth velocity, and advancing bone age.Clinical case: We present a case...

Introduction: The HypoparaNet database includes 509 patients (110 men and 399 women) with chronic hypoparathyroidism (cHP), recruited and followed in 20 clinical centers in Italy from 2014 onwards. cHP etiology included 363 post-surgical cases (71.3%), 78 idiopathic cases (15.3%), and 64 patients with a genetic background (12.6%). Bone health is an important clinical aspect to be considered in patients with cHP, whose skeleton is exposed both to the cHP-induced alteration of b...

Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), apart from stimulating GH secretion in the pituitary, exerts many peripheral functions, including stimulation of cell proliferation and survival. In fact, GHRH and GHRH receptors (GHRH-Rs) are expressed in different cancer cell types, where they promote proliferation and survival. Conversely, GHRH antagonists exert antineoplastic activities in several tumors, including lung cancer, one of the leading causes of death by cancer worldwide....

Introduction: To date, there are no clear biochemical parameters to identify early COVID-19 cases at risk of complications in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Aim: To evaluate the prognostic potential of endocrine biomarkers associated with acute inflammatory conditions in ICU patients for COVID-19.Methods: Between 1/3/2020 and 31/12/2020 we recruited 126 consecutive patients at the admission to ICU 1U, Molinette University Hospital ...

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignancy of the thyroid gland. MTCs originate from thyroid-C cells and account for 2-4% of all thyroid neoplasms. Originating from thyroid-C cells, the main secretory product of MTCs is calcitonin, used as sensitive and specific MTC-biomarker. Calcitonin is a hormone known to participate in calcium-bone metabolism suppressing bone-resorption by inhibiting the activity of osteoclasts, and inhibiting the kidney reabsorption of calcium a...

Background: Dysnatremia is common in hospitalized patients, often worsening the prognosis in pneumopathies and critical illnesses, such as COVID-19. Here, hyponatremia is an indicator of pulmonary involvement, while hypernatremia is associated with worse assistance outcomes, particularly when resulting from an overcorrected hyponatremia. Longer hospitalizations, readmissions after discharge and higher short- and long-term mortality rates have been observed in acute patients ex...

Neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are generated from precursors, persists in discrete regions of the adult hippocampus. The hippocampus is critical for learning and memory and is the main target of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which causes massive neuronal death, reduction in neurogenesis, and impairment in cognitive functions. Therefore, preventing neuronal loss or increasing the production of new neurons may represent a potential therapeutic strategy to reduce...

Background: In recent years, increasing cases of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) with in situ thyroid gland are identified. Outcome of children affected from CH with normally sited thyroid of normal size is still unknown. The objective of our study is to describe the natural history of this specific form of CH. Patients and methods: We retrospectively evaluated clinical, biochemical and instrumental data of 74 patients with diagnosis of CH with in situ thyroid...