Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Steroid hormones such as the estrogen 17β-estradiol and the androgen testosterone play an important role in the etiology of hormone dependent diseases. To investigate factors influencing endogenous steroid hormone synthesis also biologically less active glucuronides and sulfates should be considered since they can serve as circulating reservoir for bioactive hormones. As the sensitivity of the available mass spectrometry (MS)-based method is lower for glucuron...

Rare diseases affect more than 300 million people worldwide, often lead to chronic illness, disability, and premature death. The recent advancements in genetics through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) have revolutionized research and diagnostics. NGS technologies allowed the identification of novel candidate disease-causing genes, significantly also in-depth modification of our understanding of genetic architecture of various rare endocrine diseases. However, despite these re...

Introduction: The diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is often challenging and requires the use of several diagnostic methods. Late-night salivary cortisol (LNSC) offers an easy, non-invasive screening method for CS. However, its availability is still limited and the cut-off values vary widely between laboratories. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of LNSC for CS in comparison with late-night serum cortisol (LNSerC) and 24-hour urinary free cortiso...

Background: In the multifarious etiopathogenesis of skeletal fragility, an intriguing novel element is the possible existence of a crosstalk between autonomic nervous system (ANS) function and bone health. Indeed, sympathetic overactivity might stimulate osteoclastogenesis and inhibit osteoblastic proliferation, whereas opposite effects would be exerted by a prevalent parasympathetic activation. Autonomic Nervous System Index (ANSI) is a percent ranked (0–100) unitary pro...

Background: Late-onset central hypogonadism (LOH), whose prevalence is high among dysmetabolic males, impairs quality of life and increases cardiovascular risk. Although lifestyle modification is the first-line therapeutic strategy, it often fails in clinical practice, probably due to socio-cultural, economic and organisational barriers, as well as the lack of effective and sustainable intervention programs.Aim: To delineate sustainable physical exercise...

Introduction: Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) represents a common extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves’ disease, however 2-7.5% of primary hypothyroid patients can experience a form of TAO as well. This condition is a rare autoimmune disease, where auto-antibodies (anti-TSH receptor antibodies or TRAb) target antigens shared by the thyroid and the orbit. This results in the inflammation, swelling and bulging of the eyes and surrounding orbital tissues. There are...

Obesity during gestation has been related to predisposition to endocrine and metabolic diseases in the offspring. Regarding reproductive effects, an increase in BMI in pregnant mothers is associated with precocious puberty in their offspring. This has been replicated in animal models of high fat diet (HFD) administration to mothers. Also, gestational obesity has been associated to higher susceptibility to developing breast cancer in the offspring. As both precocious puberty an...

Introduction: The combination of chemotherapy with prophylatic cranial radiotherapy (C-RT) allowed the improvement of survival rates of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors while putting them at risk of develeping long-term endocrine deficiencies, like growth hormone deficiency (GHD).Current evidence suggests that the prevalence of GHD in children treated with radiation doses ≥ 30–50 Gy for non-pituitary brain tumors is...

Objective: After Cushing Syndrome (CS) is cured, up to 70% of patients develop chronic adrenal insufficiency (AI) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction. A long-term treatment with glucocorticoids (GC) is mandatory to overcome AI. However, this treatment implies non-desired complications. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF21), a key regulator of metabolism, has a bidirectional relationship with GC that bypasses the negative feedback of the HPA axis. In this study...

Background: Male osteoporosis is undermanaged. The characteristics of men referring to health care system for bone evaluation remain partially unknown.Aim: To characterize from real-life data male patients seeking the first bone health evaluation at a tertiary academic medical center, referral for both andrological and bone diseases, over a 13-year observation period.Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study, including adult me...