Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Multimorbidity, presence of 2 or more chronic conditions, is a growing issue for patients as well as health systems. Reported prevalence of multimorbidity in females in a UK study was 23%. Presence of an additional chronic condition adds challenges to an existing condition. The difficulties of living with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have been well described both in terms of dealing with the symptoms as well as the potential metabolic and men...

Introduction: B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF), a member of the tumour necrosis factor family, is essential for B cell activation, differentiation and survival. It promotes autoantibody production and as Graves’ disease is caused by thyroid stimulating autoantibodies, it is an excellent functional candidate gene. Indeed, elevated serum BAFF levels have been found in patients with several autoimmune diseases, including Graves’ disease (GD). The T al...

Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is a glycoprotein which binds hormones such as testosterone. Around 97% of circulating testosterone is bound to SHBG and is therefore biologically unavailable; approximately 2–3% of testosterone is free or loosely bound to proteins such as albumin, and is biologically active, or bioavailable. Free testosterone is very technically challenging to quantify; in order to circumvent this problem, equations are used...

Background: Multimorbidity, presence of 2 or more chronic conditions, is a growing issue for patients as well as health systems. Reported prevalence of multimorbidity in females in a UK study was 23%. Presence of an additional chronic condition adds challenges to an existing condition. The difficulties of living with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have been well described both in terms of dealing with the symptoms as well as the potential metabolic and men...

Introduction: B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF), a member of the tumour necrosis factor family, is essential for B cell activation, differentiation and survival. It promotes autoantibody production and as Graves’ disease is caused by thyroid stimulating autoantibodies, it is an excellent functional candidate gene. Indeed, elevated serum BAFF levels have been found in patients with several autoimmune diseases, including Graves’ disease (GD). The T al...

Background: Fatigue is one of the most frequently reported adverse events in patients treated with multikinase inhibitors (MKIs). It is present in about 59% and 24% of patients treated with lenvatinib and vandetanib, respectively, associates with a decreased quality of life and often leads to treatment discontinuation. In 2018, for the first time, a correlation between fatigue and primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) was demonstrated in 12 patients treated with lenvatinib and v...

Objectives: Lenvatinib treatment is responsible for several adverse events (AEs). Hypocalcemia has been described in the registration study in 7% of patients, being of grade ≥3 in 2.7% of cases. No real-life studies are available, and the actual impact of this AE during Lenvatinib treatment is still unknown. Aim of our study is to evaluate the frequency of hypocalcemia in our series of patients treated with Lenvatinib and the possible predictors of this side effect.<...

Background and Aim: American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines do not consider age at diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) as a prognostic factor in the estimation of risk of recurrence and persistent disease. While age at diagnosis has already been assessed in high-risk patients, it remains to be established whether there is a correlation between age at diagnosis and long term outcome in DTC patients.Methods: We retrospectively evaluated ...

Objectives: Factitious disorder imposed on self or Munchausen’s syndrome (MS), is a psychiatric disorder in which physical symptoms are intentionally produced without any practical benefit. Patients with MS represent a diagnostic dilemma as laboratory and clinical results can be inconsistent with the history and physical exam. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the levothyroxine overload test to differentiate MS from malabsorption and to treat life-threaten...

Aims: Surgery is the only curative treatment for medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) patients and the gold standard practice is still represented by total thyroidectomy and prophylactic central neck compartment lymphnode dissection. As it happened for differentiated thyroid cancer, in the last years some authors proposed less aggressive and extent surgical modality as hemithyroidectomy and ipsilateral neck compartment dissection in unilateral and solitary sporadic MTC cases. Few st...