Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pegvisomant (PEGV) has an efficacy of >90% to control insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), however in everyday practice a limited efficacy of 63% was reported.Aim: To assess efficacy in the largest single center cohort of acromegalics using PEGV.Methods: A 112 subjects (65 male) were not controlled with high-dose somatostatin analogues (LA-SRIF) for at least 6 months. To control acromegaly, 109 subjects added PEGV ...

Introduction: Pegvisomant (PEGV) has an efficacy of >90% to control insulin-like growth factor-1. Main safety issues are elevated transaminases that seem to be related to Gilbert’s polymorphisms (GiPism) or gender and tumor-size increase (1).Aim: To assess safety in the largest single center cohort of acromegalics using PEGV.Methods: Results are expressed as median (interquartile-range).One-hundred a...

Introduction: Latent toxoplasmosis, a zoonosis caused by protozoan Toxoplasma gondii, is the most widespread human parasitosis in developed countries (prevalence 20–80%). Upon infection, T. gondii stays in human organism lifelong. It has been linked to several autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). The aim of our study was to assess the impact of latent T. gondii infection on the prevalence of AITD in pregnancy with re...

Background: Early miscarriages are of multifactorial origin. Subclinical thyroid dysfunction belongs to the common causes. Thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy is caused mainly by thyroid autoimmunity and/or iodine deficiency. The Czech Republic belongs to countries with sufficient iodine intake. The aim of the study was to determine iodine status in women after early miscarriages (n=183) and to compare it with randomly chosen age-comparable euthyroid women without previo...

Glucocorticoid signalling is essential during embryonic lung development, with both the global and epithelial glucocorticoid receptor (GR) null mice presenting with lung atelectasis and post natal lethality. In this study, we examined the role of glucocorticoid signalling within mesenchymal tissues. To study the role of the GR in mesenchymal tissues during embryogenesis we crossed GRflox mice with Dermo1-Cre mice to generate GRDermo1 mice, where the GR gene was cond...

Introduction: Maternal hypothyroidism is associated with an increased risk of complications both to the pregnant mother and the developing fetus. The 2007 American Endocrine Society Guidelines recommend a rapid titration of thyroxine dose to attain a target TSH concentration of ≤2.5 µU/mL in the 1st trimester (≤3 µU/mL in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters). Objectives Our aims were to assess the adequacy of thyroxine replacement in pregnant women with hypothyroi...

Introduction: Impaired glucose tolerance and overt diabetes mellitus are frequently associated with acromegaly. The aim of this study was to find whether these alterations could be reversed after transsphenoidal surgery.Patients and methods: Two hundred and thirty-nine acromegalic patients were studied before and 6–12 months after transsphenoidal surgery. Diagnosis of active acromegaly was established on the basis of widely recognized criteria. In e...

In humans, androgen synthesis crucially depends on the enzyme CYP17A1 expressed in adrenals and gonads. The 17,20 lyase activity of CYP17A1 catalyses the key step in human androgen biosynthesis, the conversion of 17-hydroxypregnenolone to the universal sex steroid precursor dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). For its catalytic activity, CYP17A1 requires electron transfer from P450 oxidoreductase (POR). Mutations in CYP17A1 and POR are known to disrupt human androgen s...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) accounts for 5–10% of all hypertension. In about 30% of PA patients the disease is unilateral caused by an adenoma or rarely unilateral hyperplasia. Cure rate from unilateral adrenalectomy, defined as normalized aldosterone secretion, is high but only 30–35% will obtain complete resolution of hypertension. We have studied pre- and postoperative characteristics potentially important for biochemical cure and normotension after adr...

The majority of pregnancy steroids originate in the fetal zone of the fetal adrenal (FZ). The data in the literature indicates that placental CRH directly stimulates the FZ. Despite the substantial alterations in the placental CRH production in late pregnancy, the predictivity of CRH for an estimation of term is poor. To sidetrack the expensive determination of unstable CRH, it may be expediential to use the FZ steroids. However, even these substances may not be optimal for pr...