Endocrine Abstracts

Somatostatin (SST) and growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) are hypothalamic hormones that, respectively, inhibit and stimulate pituitary GH secretion. In addition, in peripheral tissues somatostatin and its analogues inhibit, whereas GHRH stimulates, both normal and cancer cell growth and survival. Furthermore, both somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR-2) and GHRH expression have been shown in normal human endometrium. Endometriosis is a common estrogen-dependent disorder defined...

Recent evidence shows that patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at substantial risk of hypopituitarism. However, the pathomechanisms are still not completely understood. Little is known about the association of morphological changes in the sella region with pituitary function in TBI. In this study, we assessed morphological abormalities of the sella region in patients with TBI and their relation to endocrine function.We have studied MR or CT sc...

In primary adrenal insufficiency hydrocortisone or cortisone are commonly used at doses of 30–37.5 mg/day as replacement therapy, though recent studies showed that cortisol normal production is about 5.7 mg/m2, equivalent to 20 mg/day of hydrocortisone, suggesting that supraphysiological doses are used. In 19 Addison’s disease patients (8 M, 11 F, 23–71 yr) under conventional glucocorticoid replacement therapy (37.5 mg cortisone/day) with low DHEAS le...

Two medical therapies are now available for the treatment of acromegaly. Pegvisomant is a growth hormone (GH) receptor antagonist. Somatostatin analogues, in contrast, act by inhibiting the release of GH from the pituitary. The primary objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of pegvisomant (P) to that of octreotide LAR (LAR) in terms of IGF-1 normalisation. The secondary objective was to compare safety and tolerability between the two treatments.<p class="abste...

Acylated ghrelin (AG) participates in the modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis functions, with a predominantly inhibitory effect upon the reproductive system in animals. Animal studies have shown that ghrelin suppresses LH secretion in vivo, decreases LH responsiveness to GnRH in vitro and partially delays the timing of puberty in males. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of AG infusion on spontaneous and stimulated gonadotropin secret...

Background: Many endogenous steroid hormones are reported to be subjected to distinct circadian rhythms, which are driven by central regulators, hormonal bioavailability and half-life. Recently, the measurement of androgens phase II metabolites has gained interest in the diagnosis and management of different endocrinological pathologies, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), female adrenal hyperandrogenism and hirsutism, prostate cancer, but their circadian patterns have...

Background: When evaluating a patient for central adrenal insufficiency (CAI), there is a wide range of morning cortisol values for which no final conclusion on hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function can be drawn; in these cases, a stimulation test is required. Aim of this study was to develop an integrated model for the prediction of CAI when morning cortisol is in the grey zone, here defined as 40.0-160.0 μg/l.Methods: Overall, 119 pat...

Introduction: The onset and progression of liver damage in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is tightly associated with metabolic derangements. Steroids may affect lipid metabolism but their alterations in the setting of NAFLD remain to be fully explored.Patients and Methods: We analyzed data from 121 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 108 controls (CT). A panel of 26 steroids (including glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, and prog...

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of simple and clinical/imaging-corrected unconventional indices in predicting the selectivity of adrenal vein sampling (AVS) and the lateralization of aldosterone hypersecretion in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA).Methods: Data of all consecutive patients with a proven diagnosis of PA who underwent AVS for subtype differentiation in two Italian referral centers were analyzed retrospectively....

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify any predictive factors for need of high doses of cabergoline (CAB) in prolactinomas and to study any relationship between adverse events onset and CAB cumulative dose.Methods: Forty-two patients harboring resistant prolactinomas (High Dose group-HD; cabergoline dose ≥ 3.5 mg/week) were matched by gender, age and pituitary tumor diameter at diagnosis with subjects under standard doses (Standard Dose gro...