Endocrine Abstracts

Craniopharyngiomas (CP) are congenital, benign, embryonic malformations which arise from ectoblastic remnants of Rathke’s pouch and are located in the (supra-)sellar region. Many patients show a reduced growth rate and an increased BMI early before the diagnosis of CP. However, it is unknown whether patients with CP present with increased head circumference before diagnosis. A cohort of 90 patients was screened for medical records of their developmental monitoring visits....

Epigenetic modifications and chromatin remodelling have been demonstrated to play a key role in the development, and progression of multiple cancers, and compounds regulating these mechanisms represent a novel class of anti-cancer drugs. Menin, which is encoded by the MEN1 gene, whose mutations result in a syndrome characterised by pituitary, parathyroid and pancreatic islet tumours, binds histone modifying enzymes, including the histone methyltransferase MLL1. Furthe...

Context: Identification of risk factors predicting relapse in patients with hyperthyroidism of Graves’ disease after the first cycle with standard thyreostatic therapy [ATD] is important to guide therapeutic options.Objective: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to study predictors for risk of relapse after the first treatment episode with ATD in patients with Graves’ disease induced hyperthyroidism.Data so...

Background: Remote recurrence and metastasis are unusual complications in childhood-onset adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma mainly occurring either along a previous surgical route or by seeding via cerebrospinal fluid.Case description: An 11-year-old female patient initially presented with headache and neck pain as well as nausea over the course of 2 months. A sellar/suprasellar mass (4.0 cm×4.0 cm 5.0 cm) was detected on magnetic resonance imaging...

Objective: Hypothalamic obesity in childhood craniopharyngioma (CP) patients bares a high risk for development of metabolic syndrome. In metabolic syndrome, the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is known. The aim of this study is to detect the risk for NAFLD in childhood-onset CP.Design: This cross-sectional study included liver computed tomography (CT); ultrasound analysis of abdomen; measurements of serum parameters, height, weigh...

Objective: Pediatric patients with sellar masses such as craniopharyngioma (CP) or cyst of Rathke’s pouch (CRP) frequently suffer disease- and treatment-related sequelae. We analyzed the impact and prognostic relevance of initial hydrocephalus (HY) and hypothalamic involvement (HI) on long-term survival and functional capacity (FC) in children with CP or CRP.Subjects and methods: Using retrospective analysis of patient records, presence of initial H...

Introduction: We retrospectively evaluated all patients with pituitary tumours treated in our department from 1.1.1997–1.11.2014Patients and methods: 215 patients (124 females: 91 males, mean age 50,9 y.) were treated because of pituitary tumours. All patients underwent basal hormonal analysis and testing in order to check for hormonal activity. Pituitary masses were divided into groups concerning their hormonal status and were further classified ac...

Objective: Whether additional immunosuppressive drugs to standard treatment with thyreostatic drugs reduce the risk for relapse in Graves’ disease is not well understood. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to study the effects of immunosuppressive drugs on relapse rate and treatment effect of patients with hyperthyroidism due to Graves’ disease.Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane in July 2015 for randomized-controll...

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) form a distinct entity of malignant lesions with a dreadful prognosis. More than 50% of the patients already have distant metastasis by the time of diagnosis, which underpins the urgent need for more effective treatment modalities. Notch pathway, evolutionary old and highly cellular context dependent signalling mechanism, was shown to regulate growth and development of normal neuroendocrine cells and PNETs, with experimental data implyi...

A 3-year-old boy born to non-consanguineous parents. He was diagnosed to have autism at 2 years of age. He had a history of pica. He was admitted with severe carpopedal spasms of hands and feet. Investigations revealed severe hypomagnesaemia, hypocalcaemia, hypokalaemia, hyponatremia, and moderately low vitamin D levels. Parathyroid hormone concentration was low. Urine analysis revealed loss of sodium, calcium, magnesium and sodium. Renal functions and renal ultrasound were no...