Endocrine Abstracts

Infertility is a global health problem that affects about 15% of couples and approximately half of infertility cases are associated with male factors. Oxidative Stress (OS) is reported as one of the major causes of male infertility, mainly due to spermatozoa’s vulnerability to the attack of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Infertile couples often recur to assisted reproductive technology (ART) to achieve a successful pregnancy. However, ART protocols also increase the expos...

Introduction: Thyrotoxic crisis is a rare endocrinological emergency with high mortality and it is more frequent in Graves’ disease.Clinical case: A 66-year-old women with schizophrenia was admitted to the Emergency Department due to altered state of consciousness, fatigue, constant moaning interspersed with unusual psychomotor agitation, heteroaggressiveness, diarrhea and anorexia. Lack of compliance with her psychiatric medication, new delusional ...

Introduction: Primary Bilateral Macronodular Adrenal Hyperplasia (PBMAH) represents <2% of causes of Cushing’s Syndrome (CS). Clinical course is insidious, with adrenal bilateral macronodules and gradual cortisol excess, only rarely presenting with overt CS. The pathophysiology remains unclear, however, hyperactivation of the cAMP/PKA pathway, in 77-87% of cases through aberrantly expressed G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), has been described. Despite being a benig...

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease for which causal mechanisms are incompletely understood and subclassification may improve patient management. In the latest assessment of patients with adult-onset diabetes, Ahlqvist and colleagues (2018) defined five new subgroups: an autoimmune form, two severe forms (insulin-deficient and insulin-resistant diabetes) and two mild forms (obesity and age-related diabetes).Objectives:...

Introduction: Ultrasound guided Fine-Needle Aspiration (USFNA) of Thyroid is the gold standard for diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Nowadays, many patients are under anticoagulation and antiplatelet medication. Some of the rare complications of USFNA are haemorrhage therefore it’s not clear if performing thyroid USFNA in hypo-coagulated patients increase that risk of complications or if this medication should be stopped before the procedure. Additionally the influence that t...

Introduction: Prediabetes is a very prevalent disease. About 27.4% of Portuguese adults suffer from this condition. Prediabetes is defined as intermediate hyperglycemia state associated with the simultaneous presence of insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction as diabetes, with increased risk of developing macro and microvascular complications. Approximately 7% of individuals with prediabetes will progress to diabetes per year. This study aims to characterize a populatio...

Introduction: Hypertriglyceridemia (hyperTG) may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and values above 1000 mg/dl are a risk factor for pancreatitis, including non-fasting measurements. The American Heart Association suggested that providers could use nonfasting triglycerides >200 mg/dl to identify hyperTG states. When an elevated result is observed, a fasting triglyceride measure may be reassessed, with exception for extreme levels (for example approximately 1000 m...

Thyroid nodules are a common clinical finding, with an estimated prevalence of palpable thyroid nodules to be approximately 5% in women and 1% in men. The clinical importance of thyroid nodules rests with the need to exclude thyroid cancer. The prevalence of malignancy reported for palpable thyroid lesions ranges from 5.0% to 6.5%. Patients with benign thyroid nodules are unlikely to suffer morbidity or mortality due to thyroid cancer. A 53 aged man presented with a 20-year hi...

The analogues of GLP-1(aGLP1) are a new class of anti-diabetic agents, administered subcutaneously for the treatment of Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (DM2). In the Portuguese market, there are two aGLP1 currently available: Liraglutide (once-daily administration) and Exenatide (once-weekly administration). They mimic the GLP-1, produced in the small intestine, stimulated by foods at this region, increasing the production of insulin, decreasing the satiety and slowing gastric emptyi...

Introduction: Primary Hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) is a calcium metabolism disease, resulting from one or more parathyroid glands hyperfunction. Ultrasonography and Technetium Sestamibi are, nowadays, the first line imaging techniques for diagnosis. Recently, a 4-dimensional computed tomography (4D-TC) protocol has emerged, presented in the last endocrine surgery guidelines. It is a dynamic imaging exam based on the parathyroid contrast uptake pattern, whose sensitivity and spec...