Endocrine Abstracts

The LH receptor is a member of the large receptor family of GTP-binding protein coupled receptors. Mutations in the LH receptor gene cause severe sex hormone-related disease, ranging from very early precocious puberty in boys (activating mutation) to slight undervirilization, severe hypospadias or complete 46XY pseudohermaphroditism (inactivating mutation). Thus, LH receptor gene mutations have profound effects on sex hormone production and on physiology of patients. In additi...

The incidence of gastric neuroendocrine tumors (GNT) is increasing, what can be explained by the increased detection caused by the common use of the endoscopy and the pervasive use of acid suppressive therapy leading to enterochromatofine like cells proliferation. There are numerous new diagnostic/therapeutic GNT methods in use like: EUS, SRS, somatostatin therapy and 90Y/177Lu-DOTA-TATE radiotherapy.Materials and methods: In 1998–2008 37 patients w...

Objective: To evaluate the results of the early postoperative low-dose (1 μg) ACTH (adrenocorticotropin) stimulation test in patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) in order to predict long-term outcome of transsphenoidal surgery.Methods: We reviewed the serum cortisol response to 1 μg synthetic ACTH (1–24) in the second week after pituitary surgery in 40 patients with Cushing’s disease. Median follow-up was 48.5 months (range 6&#15...

Background: Testosterone (T) in a hydroalcoholic gel is commonly prescribed as androgen replacement therapy and may not be accompanied by peaks and troughs of serum T levels as seen in T-injectables. We assessed in 17 subjects the differences in serum testosterone (sT) and free T (fT) levels during four different application periods.Methods: Patients where on daily 50 mg Androgel®, for 7 consecutive days in each cycle, on day 8 serum was ...

Background: NETs are rare tumours arising from dispersed neuroendocrine system. Nevertheless, their estimated prevalence increased lately, mostly due to progress in imaging, biochemical and histopathological diagnostics.The aim of the study was to present the characteristics of the NETs patient surveyed in our Endocrinology Department since 2000.Material and methods: One hundred and fifty-eight patients (males – 42.4%, females...

Objectives: Insulin resistance (IR) is a very common metabolic abnormality in obesity, which is often associated with reduced growth hormone (GH) secretion. GH deficiency is associated with increased in intra-abdominal fat and several parameters of the metabolic syndrome. IGF-I improves IR but the IGF-binding proteins are supposed to regulate its bioactivity although only little information exists. We postulated that the elevated insulin levels due to IR do not only suppress G...

Despite a wide spectrum of imaging diagnostics, GEP-NETs often stay undetectable until the time of dissemination. Removing of a primary tumour together with disseminated lymph nodes even with the presence of liver metastases is the most appropriate treatment to delay progression of the disease. SRS followed by RGS gives a possibility to detect occult GEP-NET intra-opratively. 99mTc-HYNIC/EDDA-octreotate, a somatostatin analogue with high affinity to sst2 was applied...

Objective: To investigate the effect of pioglitazone on cortisol metabolism in PCOS.Design: Thirty insulin resistant PCOS patients were randomized to either 16 weeks of pioglitazone (30 mg/day) or placebo treatment. Before and after intervention, patients underwent 24 h 20 min.-integrated blood sampling for measurement of cortisol and 24 h excretion of cortisol, cortisone and steroid metabolites (cortisol, corticosteron, androgen, and 17-hydroxyprogester...

Background: The response to first-generation long-acting somatostatin analogues (LA-SSA) treatment in acromegaly depends on the expression of the somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes. In contrast to octreotide and lanreotide which preferentially bind to SSTR2, pasireotide targets multiple SSTRs, with the highest binding affinity for SSTR5. It has previously been suggested that SSTR5 expression could predict the response to pasireotide LAR (PAS-LAR) treatment in acromegaly.</p...

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP2) has been demonstrated to be a key mediator of the peripheral actions of leptin, and its deficiency is associated with impaired metabolic function. The metabolic activity of IGFBP2 can be localized to a unique heparin-binding domain (HBD-1) within its structure. AZP-3404 is a 9-amino acid analog of the IGFBP2 HBD-1 that has been demonstrated to increase glucose uptake by differentiated mouse myotubes in vitro, and to increas...