Endocrine Abstracts

Screening of thyroid disorders in pregnancy has been a matter of controversy. Recent recommendations favour targeted high-risk case finding though this approach may miss a significant number of those affected (Vaidya et al. JCEM 2007).Among 398 non-selected women in the 10th week of pregnancy, thyrotropin (IRMA) >3.5 mIU/l was found in 10.3%, free thyroxine (RIA) <10 pmol/l in 2% and thyroperoxidase antibodies (RIA) >50 IU/ml in...

Adrenocortical cancer is a rare and heterogenous malignancy with incompletely understood pathogenesis and poor prognosis. Sometimes patients present with hormonal excess symptoms (e.g. virilization, Cushing’s syndrome) or local symptoms consistent with abdominal space-occupation (median tumor size at the time of diagnosis may be >10 cm). Three cases are presented to give an overview of how adrenocortical cancer is currently managed. Tumors typically appear inhomogenou...

Background: A high percentage of adult smokers try to quit, but most of these attempts fail. The ability to predict the success or failure of smoking cessation efforts will be useful for clinical practice. Stress response is regulated by two primary neuroendocrine systems. Salivary cortisol has been used as a marker for the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and salivary α-amylase as a marker for the sympathetic adrenomedullary system.Method...

Context: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric malignancy and its treatment includes many known risk factors for low bone mineral density (BMD), e.g. glucocorticosteroids, methotrexat and cranial radiotherapy (CRT).Objective: To evaluate bone mineral density (BMD) and markers of bone turn over in a group of adults with childhood onset ALL, treated with CRT and to evaluate the effect of 5 years with, and 8 years without GH thera...

The mechanisms triggering autoimmunity in the Graves-Basedow disease (GBD) are unknown, although the evidence for a genetic predisposition is well established. The thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) is a good candidate gene.Objectives: To identify the main alleles/haplotypes of the TSHR gene, and to analyze the existence of TSHR susceptibility alleles to the GBD.Material and methods: To establish the main alleles of TSHR gene, 54 polymorp...

Patients with adult onset GHD (AO-GHD) manifest features of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) (abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance), a condition associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus (DM).We assessed metabolic status before and after 2 years of GH treatment and the occurrence of de novo DM in 712 patients with AO-GHD from HypoCCS drawn from the US (32.2%) and Europe (67.8%). Patients were divided into four BMI categori...

Cortisol dynamics have been found to be disturbed in acute illness. Despite reports on neuroendocrine disturbances after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), data on cortisol dynamics in the acute phase of this illness are lacking. We evaluated diurnal cortisol rhythm in n=25 patients 1 week (t1) and 2–3 weeks (t2) after SAH. The study was approved by the local ethics committee. Cortisol and CBG were measured in serum, blood samples were drawn a...

Introduction: Obesity has been associated with a low-level activation of the acute-phase response. The aim of the present study was to compare inflammatory parameters in patients with obesity and a control group, and to evaluate the effect of weight loss on these parameters.Methods: Sixty-seven severe or morbid obese patients (51 women, 16 men), aged 34±11 years, were compared with 67 normal-weight controls (45 women, 22 men), aged 32±10 years....

Introduction: Several haemostatic disturbances have been described in obese patients. Nevertheless, the state of coagulation inhibitors has been scarcely studied in these patients. Activated protein C (APC) is the anticoagulant enzyme formed upon activation of the protein C (PC) by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex on the surface of endothelial cells. Morbid obesity is associated to endothelial dysfunction, which could cause a reduction in APC generation.<p class="abstex...

Thyroid hormones are essential for the proper development of a variety of tissues, especially the nervous system. Their transport into target cells is mediated by specific thyroid hormone transporters like the monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8). Mutations in this X-chromosomal gene in humans lead to a severe phenotype characterized by psychomotor retardation, hypotonia, and a striking derangement of serum thyroid hormone levels: high T3 in the presence of low T4, and no sign...