Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Paraganglioma (adrenal or extra-adrenal) in pregnancy is a rare condition with a high maternal and foetal mortality rate. A multidisciplinary approach is important as it will influence the maternal and foetal outcome. This is illustrated in the following case report.Case report and results: A 32-year-old woman was referred because of persistent hypertension at 33 weeks of pregnancy. There were no spontaneous complaints of headache, palpitat...

Background and aim: Adipose and muscle tissue dysfunction are associated with obesity-related complications, especially insulin resistance (IR) and inflammation, which improve after weight loss. The underlying mechanisms are however not yet fully understood. This study investigates changes in systemic and regional markers of IR and inflammation during weight loss in subjects with obesity.Materials and methods: Twenty subjects with obesity (age 49±10...

IntroductionPheochromocytomas (PHEO) and paragangliomas (PGL) are rare neuroendocrine tumors of the autonomic nervous system, originating from neural crest. Despite the same embryological origin, there are some differences between them.AimWe searched for differences in method of discovery, clinical and biochemical phenotype, of sporadic vs hereditary PHEO/PGL in a cohort of Flemish patients.<p class="abst...

Objective: To investigate performance of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) assays of different manufacturers and the effects of assay choice on calculated free testosterone (cFT).Methods: Anonymized serum samples of 113 men and 106 women were randomly selected from excess material from the routine clinical lab at the University Hospital of South Manchester. SHBG levels were measured using three different immunoassays (...

Bone metabolism in men is in part determined by sex steroid exposure. This is especially clear during puberty and senescence but it remains to be established whether declines in sex steroid levels during young and middle adulthood associate with changes in bone mass and size. This study investigated changes in bone mineral content (BMC), areal and volumetric bone density (aBMD; vBMD) and bone size in relation to sex steroid levels in 999 young adult men (age 24- 46 years) of w...

Background: Canonical Wnt-signalling is important for bone by regulating osteoblastogenesis and osteoblast function. Bone metabolism is also partly determined by sex steroid exposure and sex differences in serum sclerostin levels have been reported. However, it is unclear whether serum sclerostin and other circulating Wnt-signalling components are sex steroid dependent within healthy men.Objective: To determine whether serum sclerostin, osteoprotegerin (...

Background: Obesity associates with co-morbidities as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Obese men often present with low testosterone (T) levels. As sex steroids undergo hepatic metabolization and their serum levels depend on hepatic sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) secretion, NAFLD could contribute to this phenomenon. Previous studies however were contradictory and not based on state-of-the-art technology as mass spectrometry or biopsy-proven NAFLD.<p class="a...

Introduction: Although it is well-known that serum testosterone (T) levels decrease in ageing men, to this date no longitudinal data are available on changes in T levels in healthy young adult men.Objective: To investigate age-related longitudinal changes in serum levels of total T, free T and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in healthy young men.Methods: Data from 999 healthy men aged 24–46years who participated in a long...

Background: In elderly men, fracture risk is independently associated with higher serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels1. Previously, we observed lower free estradiol (E2) and higher SHBG levels in a three-generational family study of men with idiopathic osteoporosis2.Objective: To investigate associations between serum SHBG levels and cortical bone size at age of peak bone mass.Design: S...

Background: Obesity induced inflammation is a key component in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance (IR). In addition, obesity-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) also seems to contribute to IR development. Until now, however, it is unclear which, if any component of NAFLD specifically associates with IR. Therefore, the aim is to assess if individual components of NAFLD contribute to IR in obese patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery (GBS).<p class="abs...