Endocrine Abstracts

In pregnant women with a thyroid disease an increased amount of LT4 may be required for the correction of hypothyroidism or treatment of nodular goiter.Aim of this study was to assess the amount of the variations of LT4 requirement in pregnant women with thyroid diseases.To address this issue, we retrospectively evaluated a cohort of 138 women treated with LT4 divided in two groups: 47 euthyroid (E) (affected by nodular goiter (NG)...

Background and aim: Subclinical hypothyrodism (SH) appears to be associated with mood and changes. The aims of this study were: i) to determine whether depression is more common in SH, and ii) to investigate the effects of L-thyroxine (LT4) therapy on depressive symptoms.Methods: 31 patients with SH and 36 age amd BMI matched healthy controls were included. Beck and Hamilton scales were used to evaluate depression...

Subclinical thyrotoxicosis, defined as a low serum thyrotrophin (TSH) and normal serum free T4 and T3 concentrations, has been found in up to 3.2% of adults in cross-sectional surveys of thyroid function, of whom 75% have serum TSH concentrations of 0.1 to 0.4 mU/L. If the diagnosis is limited to only those with a serum TSH lower than 0.1 mU/L, the prevalence decreases to 0.7%, with 20% being treated with thyroxine.Thyrotoxicosis is considered overt only...

Iodine is an essential component of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) which play a crucial role in brain and neurological development. The ideal dietary allowance of iodine recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) is 150 μg of iodine per day which increases to 200–250 μg/day in pregnancy. Severe iodine deficiency may be associated with impairment in the psycho-neurological outcome in the progeny because bot...

Objective: The maintenance of healthy and functional mitochondrial network via mitochondrial quality control (QC) mechanisms, is critical throughout life to respond to physiological adaptations and stress. Due to their role in energy production, mitochondria are exposed to high amounts of reactive oxygen species making their DNA (mtDNA) particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction causes altered QC mechanisms (i.e. altered biogenesis, dynamics, autoph...

Introduction: The current guidelines state that the goals of growth hormone (GH) therapy should be an appropriate clinical response and avoidance of side effects. The target level for IGF1 is commonly the upper half of the reference range, although no published studies offer specific guidance in this regard. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate associations between IGF1 levels within the reference range and several efficacy and safety measures of GH treatm...

Background: The BTA guidelines for the use of thyroid function tests recommend the measurement of TSH receptor antibodies (TRAb) when investigating hyperthyroidism of uncertain aetiology, in suspected Graves’ ophthalmopathy and in pregnant women with Graves’ disease. An in-house TSH receptor autoantibody ELISA assay (TRAb) was introduced in 2008. This study has audited the assay performance and evaluated its clinical usefulness in a tertiary centre.<p class="abst...

Mark E Molitch, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA AbstractMark E. Molitch, MD, is Professor of Medicine and a Member of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Molecular Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern in 1984, Dr. Molitch was an Associate Professor at Tufts University School of...

The TNF members sRANK-L & Osteoprotegerin (OPG) are essential paracrine mediators of osteoclast function in vitro. The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and sRANK-L and OPG in plasma of osteoporotic patients.The study population consisted of 185 osteoporotic women (mean age 62.4 years), with bone mineral density (BMD) more than 2.5 SD below the young adult value, and 185 age-matched controls, with normal ...

Aim: Population studies have shown that basal calcitonin concentrations are below 10 ng/l in the normal population. Ten nanograms per liter is used as a diagnostic cut-off by most laboratories and patients with levels higher than this are offered a pentagastrin stimulation test to exclude medullary thyroid carcinoma. However, these guidelines were adopted from studies that used the Cisbio Immunoradiometric assay for measuring calcitonin. Most laboratories have now moved to che...