Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aim: The relationship between sarcopenia and overt cortisol excess as in Cushing’s syndrome is well-known. However, only a few studies investigated the relationship between autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS) in adrenal incidentalomas and skeletal muscle mass. The aims of our study were to analyze the skeletal muscle mass in patients with adrenal incidentalomas and to investigate the correlations with hormonal data.Methods: We enrolle...

Background: Adrenal lipid poor adenoma (LPA) and adrenocortical cancer (ACC) may overlap in computerized tomography (CT). Radiomics recently emerged as new tool for malignant behavior identification.Aim: To assess radiomics utility for identification of ACC and LPA in adrenocortical masses with unenhanced (UE) CT scan attenuation≥10 Hounsfield Unit (HU).Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 50 patients, 38 radiologically defin...

Background: Adrenal insufficiency patient (AIP) care is mostly based on symptoms or clinical signs of inadequate glucocorticoid replacement treatment (GRT). Salivary cortisol (F) and cortisone (E) recently emerged as new tools for AIP management, although poorly employed in clinical practice.Aim: To assess associations between salivary glucocorticoid measures and life quality, anxiety depressive symptoms, sleep quality in AIP.Metho...

Aim: To analyze the prevalence of anxiety and depression in a large cohort of adults affected by autoimmune diabetes and to identify the associated factors, stratifying them according to sex.Methods: We administered to 553 patients with autoimmune diabetes the questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Diabetes Distress Scale, Diabetes-related Quality of Life and Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire. We excluded 119 patients w...

Previously, we identified seven mutations in the main catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PKA Cα) to be responsible for cortisol-secreting adrenocortical adenomas (CPAs): L206R, L199_C200_insW, S213R_L212_K214insIILR, C200_GlyinsV, W197R, del244-248+E249Q, E32V. Here we performed a functional characterization of these mutants. Specifically, we evaluated the association between PKA regulatory and catalytic subunits using co-immunoprecipitation and PKA activity using a k...

Background: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a chronic disorder characterized by endogenous cortisol excess resulting in long-term metabolic and cardiovascular consequences. The identification of metabolic alterations related to hypercortisolism could be beneficial in tailoring treatments of co-morbidities. Our aim was to characterize the metabolic alterations of patients with hypercortisolism by targeted plasma metabolomic profiling.Methods: Subjects (<e...

Background: Heterozygous activating somatic mutations in the catalytic subunit α (Cα) of Protein Kinase A (PKA) underlie 30–40% of cortisol producing adrenocortical adenomas (CPA). The activity of the catalytic subunits α,β,γ is controlled by the regulatory subunits (Iα,Iβ, IIα, IIβ). Previous reports found uncommonly reduced levels of RIIβ in CPA compared to other adrenocortical tumors.Aim: Investig...

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is characterized by an excessive secretion of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) with normal or high calcium levels. The gold standard therapy involves minimally invasive parathyroidectomy with intraoperative PTH (ioPTH) monitoring. Different criteria have been identified when predicting cure rates using ioPTH values.Objective: To evaluate the percent ioPTH drop (ΔioPTH), the post-excision ioPTH, the first p...

Background: Previous studies have shown an association between low CYP11B2 DNA methylation levels and high CYP11B2 mRNA levels in aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms play a pivotal role for regulating CYP11B2 function in primary aldosteronism. It has been proposed that aldosterone-producing cell clusters (APCCs) may become a source of autonomous aldosterone production when evolving into APA.Aim: Our aim was to deter...

Background: Antithyroid drugs (ATDs) are the first line treatment for Graves’ disease in Europe and Asia. However, their long term-efficacy is doubtful, with a high disease relapse rate after discontinuation. Radioiodine and surgery can be used as a second line therapy as definitive approaches after ATDs failure. In recent years, the GREAT and the CSS scores have been suggested to assess the risk of relapse at the time of disease onset, but no data are available about th...