Endocrine Abstracts

Wegener’s granulomatosis is characterized by necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis. It occurs initially in a localized form, disseminates in various degrees and particularly involves the respiratory tract and kidneys. It is an ANCA-associated vasculitis, a systemic disease of autoimmune aetiology. Recently vitamin D deficiency has been associated with the development of autoimmunity. The aim was to present a case of Wegener’s granulomatosis in a patient with vitamin D...

Introduction: AGEs have been shown to be accumulated in granulosa cell layer from human ovaries in normal and in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and insulin resistance. AGEs interfere with insulin signaling pathways of several target tissues and are implicated in insulin resistance mechanisms. There is evidence that within the ovary these pathways are also important for glucose metabolism and normal folliculogenesis. The effect of human glycated albumin (HGA) eit...

Introduction: Acromegaly is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, in part, as a consequence of the increased insulin resistance that frequently accompanies GH hypersecretion. Glucose tolerance may worsen in patients treated with somatostatin analogs (SSA).Objective: To compare the long term effects of SSA treatment to successful surgery on glucose metabolism in Cretan acromegalic patients.Design and meth...

Introduction: The possibility of progression of subclinical hyperthyroidism (SH) to overt hyperthyroidism (OH) is a critical point in deciding whether to treat this situation.The aim of this study is to evaluate the rate of progression of SH to OH and the factors influencing this outcome.Methods/design: This is a retrospective study at an endocrine referral service in Northern Greece. Data from patients with SH diagnosed between 19...

Introduction: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) has generally a good prognosis and is associated with prolonged survival. A minority of patients may have persistent disease and rarely aggravation during f/u. We investigated factors which may influence the persistence of disease in patients who had undergone ablation with I131.Patients and methods: 903 DTC patients were referred in our center from 1968 to 2012. Five hundred and forty-one (...

Introduction: Recently, small medullary thyroid carcinomas (sMTCs) (≤1.5 cm) are frequently diagnosed, occasionally as incidental findings in surgical and autopsy specimens. Their clinical course varies. We examined whether tumor size is a predictor of clinical behavior.Patients and methods: One hundred and one sMTC patients (36.6% males, 47.1% familial) followed-up for 0.9–35 years. Patients were classified according to tumor size (cm) in gro...

Background: The diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism, a clinical situation characterised by reduced production of parathyroid hormone despite the low calcium level, depends on patient’s anamnesis, clinical aspect and the biochemical parameters.Thalassaemia, an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease, caused by the reduced capacity of erythroblasts to synthesize one of the chains that build up hemoglobine. The combination of transfusion and chelation ...

Objective: To assess the impact of genetic polymorphisms associated with increased cardiovascular risk on the lipid profile in healthy postmenopausal women.Methods: The study population consisted of 84 women between 49–69 years who had been menopausal for at least one year. The genetic polymorphisms examined were the following: Glycoprotein IIIa leu33pro, Apolipoprotein E2/E3/E4, Methylenotetrahydrofolate reductase ala222val, Apolipoprotein B arg350...

Introduction: The relation between vitamin D deficiency and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been rarely addressed in the literature with conflicting results. The aim is to determine the association between maternal serum 25(OH)D and glucose metabolism in Caucasian pregnant women.Patients and methods: In a prospective study 157 pregnant women aged 31.2±5.8 years underwent a 100 g OGTT in the third trimester of pregnancy, during which serum 25...

A common polymorphism of the ERβ gene (AluI) located in 3′-UTR of exon 8 has been shown to be associated with clinical features of altered estrogen action in tissues where this gene is expressed. It has recently been shown that GnRH neurons express ERβ, indicating that this receptor may participate in the feedback regulation of gonadotrophin secretion. We therefore studied the association of gonadotrophin levels and the AluI polymorp...