Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Ectopic thyroid is a rare entity, resulting from developmental defects at early stages of thyroid embriogenesis. It’s prevalence is 1/100 000–300 000 in general population and 1/4000–8000 in patients with thyroid disease. This condition is more common in females, in Asians and may occur at any age, although it’s most common at younger ages. The most frequent location of ectopic thyroid tissue is at the base of the tongue. In 70–75% of cas...

Introduction: MEN1 is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait, with a prevalence of 2–20/100 000 in the general population. It is characterized by tumors envolving the parathyroid glands, the endocrine pancreas and the pituitary. Other tumors are more rarely associated: adrenal adenomas, carcinoid tumors, pheocromocytomas, angiofibromas, lipomas, collagenomas and meningiomas. The presence of two or more of MEN1 associated tumors is diagnostic of the syndrome.<p class...

Background: Insulinomas are rare neuroendocrine tumours (4 cases/million patients per year), representing an important cause of hyperinsulinemia. Usually are benign and sporadic, but can be part of multiple endocrine neoplasias. To establish the diagnosis it is essential to document inappropriately high levels of insulin during episodes of hypoglycaemia.Aim: Retrospective analysis of the clinical files of the patients followed in our department since Jan...

Graves’ disease is characterized by the occurrence of antibodies against thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor that stimulate the gland to produce T4 and T3. It can be accompanied by an infiltrative orbitopathy and oftalmopathy. Another seldom- regognized feature of this disease is thymic hyperplasia.The authors report the case of a 22-year-old woman with Graves’ disease (TSH receptor antibodies 178 U/l) with exuberant oftalmopathy and an ...

Transthyretin (TTR) is a protein mainly synthesized by the liver and choroid plexus (CP) of the brain. Besides its role as a carrier for thyroid hormones, TTR also sequesters the amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide impairing its deposition in nervous tissues, and its concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) appear to be inversely correlated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) onset and progression. Abundant evidence suggests that the depletion of progesterone (PROG) at menopa...

Background: Incidental discovery of an adrenal mass (AM) presents a common finding in patients with a history of extraadrenal malignant tumour. Discerning malignancy in AM is based on radiology (Rx) and scintigraphic (Sx) criteria, and finally fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNA) of the tissue.Objective: Determine the concordance of Rx and Sx techniques in patients with an AM and previous oncologic history.Materials and methods: We ...

Cyclic Cushing’s disease is a rare situation due to episodic hypersecretion of ACTH. Suspicion is raised when strong clinical stigmata occur, with normal basal values of cortisol and normal responses to dynamic tests. After performing several tests, particularly during phases without symptoms (well-being), the probability of successful diagnosis increases.We describe the case of a 33 years old female patient with full-blown clinical picture (weight ...

Background: The lack of circadian rhythm is a marker of Cushing’s syndrome (CS). Therefore, salivary cortisol rhythm has been suggested for studies on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Late-night salivary cortisol has been used recently by many centers as a first line diagnostic test for CS, yet its accuracy is still on debate.Aim: To evaluated the performance of morning and late night salivary cortisol in patients with CS and...

Backgroud: Primary hyperparathyroidism is the most common cause of hypercalcemia, which is associated with an increased frequency of hypertension. However, there are no data on the prevalence of primary hyperparathyroidism in patients who present with hypertension.Clinical case: We present the case of a 40-year-old woman with a history of hypertension for ten years. In 2017 she was referred for evaluation of hypercalcemia. The patient denied any symptoms...

IntroductionThe malignancy risk of an adrenal nodule is based on clinical symptoms (rapid onset of hypercortisolism and hyperandrogenism; mass symptoms) and imaging characteristics. These suspicious criteria include boundary irregularities, heterogeneity, dimension>6 cm and density>20 HU (CT). However, these are not absolute criteria.Case reportWe report the case of a 43 years-old female patient with a histor...