Endocrine Abstracts

Literature evidenced correlation between psychiatric disorders and overweight/obese (BMI>25) conditions, management and treatment. There are involved psychiatric diseases and temperamental traits. Our study, born from collaboration between Psychiatric and Plastic Surgery Clinic of Padua University, wants to detect psychiatric disorders, temperamental traits and body image perception in overweight-obese patients who seek surgical liposuction or abdominoplastic. We studied (...

Introduction: Nodular thyroid disease is common in the general population, but only 5% of thyroid nodules are carcinomas. The diagnostic challenge is to identify those nodules that are malignant neoplasias. Some sonographic features of nodules have been correlated with the risk of malignancy, but at present, thyroid cytology obtained by ultrasound-guided FNA is probably the best tool in the preoperative management of nodular disease.Design: We designed a...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women in their reproductive age. Based on the Rotterdam criteria PCOS is defined by two out of the following three criteria: hyperandrogenism, oligo/anovulation, and polycystic ovaries. In addition, PCOS patients are often abdominal obese, which can lead to insulin resistance. The subsequent increased insulin levels stimulate the ovary to further increased androgen production. Thus, the elevated androgen...

Little is known about the molecules that contribute to tumor growth in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) that remain the most lethal gynecological neoplasm. Glucocorticoid-Induced Leucine Zipper (GILZ), a leucine zipper protein of 17 kDa, is frequently detected in epithelial tissues with a hormonal background. We detected GILZ in EOC1 and we further demonstrated that this factor which expression is enhanced by estradiol (E2), activates tumor cell proliferat...

Patients with acromegaly resistant to conventional drug treatment currently can advantage with GH-receptor antagonist pegvisomant. To date, at doses up to 40 mg/day, it is capable of normalizing circulating IGF1 in until 97% of patients. Here we present the multicenter experience in Rome with Pegvisomant as a therapeutic option in acromegaly. This is an observational study including a total of 61 patients (21 males and 40 females) treated with pegvisomant for up to 7 years. Of...

Introduction: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine disorders of premenopausal women. It is also the most frequent cause of female infertility and affects 6.5–8% of women in their reproductive age. Two out of three criteria diagnoses PCOS: oligo- or anovulation, clinical or biochemical signs of hyperandrogenism and polycystic ovaries at ultrasound. In addition, PCOS women frequently display features of the metabolic syndrome, such as abdomin...

20alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (20αHSD) has been initially characterized as a progesterone metabolizing enzyme of the ovary mandatory for the final reduction of progesterone blood levels before parturition. As the exact zonal distribution and regulation of adrenal 20αHSD has not been defined, adrenal 20αHSD expression and activity was determined by western blotting, immunohistochemistry and enzymatic assays in wild type BALB/c mice of both genders at diffe...

CNC is an autosomal dominant multiple neoplasia syndrome, responsible mainly for cardiac myxomas, pigmented skin lesions and endocrine tumors (acromegaly, thyroid and testicular neoplasms and primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease: PPNAD). The PRKAR1A gene was previously found to be mutated in about 41% of CNC kindreds. Most mutations lead to nonsens mediated mRNA decay and preclude expression of the mutant protein. 102 patients (64 with PPNAD and 38 with CNC)...

PTH has been reported to enhance steroid secretion in vitro from human adrenocortical cells and some reports indicate an increased cortisol secretion in patients with PHPT that normalizes after surgery. Thus, the possible stimulatory effect of PTH on cortisol secretion could contribute to the impairment of bone status in primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between parameters of adrenal function, bone metabolism and ...

In the light of recent data reporting a high rate of cardiovascular events in Primary Aldosteronism (PA) we investigated whether the Metabolic Syndrome (MS) represents a common feature in patients with PA. A cohort of 86 patients, mean age 51±12 yr was analysed: 59 patients (26 females and 39 males) with idiopathic hyperaldosteronism (IHA) and 27 patients (13 females and 14 males) with aldosterone producing adenoma (APA). Anthropometric parameters (height, weight, waist c...