Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aims: Plasma Galectin-3 (Gal-3), mediator of fibrogenesis and inflammation, has been implicated in many diseases. Particularly in diabetics, this lectin directly mediates transdifferentiation in collagen-producing cells thus leading to fibrosis of target organs and accelerating the development of complications. The objective of our study was to determine a cut-off value for Gal-3 in our population.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, a...

Introduction: Primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) is a common endocrine disorder usually diagnosed by the presence of elevated serum calcium levels with inappropriate normal or increased parathyroid hormone (PTH) serum levels. This condition has been reported in few cases of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), a multisystem disorder with acute and chronic complications.Observation: We report a case of a 63-year-old Tunisian woman with a history of ho...

Introduction: Postoperative hypoparathyroidism is a frequent complication of total thyroidectomy that must be detected and treated. The resulting hypocalcemia is quite severe and usually occurs in the first few days or weeks after surgery.Herein, we describe a case of chronic asymptomatic hypocalcemia related to postoperative hypoparathyroidism diagnosed years after total thyroidectomy.Observation: We report the case of a 61 year old woman, who had a tot...

Introduction: Primary hyperparathyroidism is associated with multiple complications: severe bone disease is one of them. Osteomalacia is by definition a metabolic bone disease characterized by a softening of the bones. We herein report a rare case of an association between primary hyperparathyroidism with osteitis fibrosa cystica and osteomalacia caused by a severe vitamin D deficiency.Observation: A 37-year old woman was referred for investigation of we...

Introduction: Primary hyperparathyroidism is the most common manifestation of multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 1, with a frequent involvement of all the parathyroids. In cases where the four glands weren’t resected, a close monitoring should be performed for an early diagnosis of recurrence. Elevated calcium levels with elevated parathormone (PTH) levels in this context makes the physician suspect an adenoma or a hyperplasia of the remaining parathyroid. We herein ...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency is defined as a deficit in the functioning of the adrenal cortex. The acute form represents a diagnostic and therapeutic emergency, but the clinical presentation is sometimes misleading.Observation: We report the case of a 57-year-old patient with a personal history of vitiligo, who was suffering for two months from asthenia with abdominal pain and vomiting, then he presented with a generalized tonic-clonic convulsive ...

Introduction: Renal complications in Graves’ disease are rare and may be related either to the disease itself or secondary to antithyroid drugs.Methods: We report seven cases of renal damage in patients with Graves’ disease treated with Benzylthiouracyl collected over a period of 14 years.Results: There were seven women with a mean age of 37.86±14.25 years (19–61 years).Six patients develo...

Introduction: Systemic amyloidosis leads to functional compromise of various organs through infiltration of these tissues by amyloid protein.The aim of this study was to determine the endocrine disorders in patients with systemic amyloidosis.Methods: During the period from 1975 to 2006, we collected 580 patients with renal amyloidosis confirmed by histological exam. We selected 123 patients with hormonal exploration. 55 patients ha...

Introduction: Thyroid gland may be asymptomatically involved in most patients with secondary systemic amyloidosis. However, clinically detectable amyloid goiter is quite rare; often it is seen in patient with kidney involvement. We report one case of amyloid goitre without kidney manifestation.Case report: A 30-year-old male diagnosed with bilateral bronchiectasis since 1992 was admitted with rapidly growing goiter associated with dysphagia for solids, c...

Introduction: Incidentally discovered adrenal incidentalomas has been reported to be as high as 5% of abdominal cross-sectional imaging performed for reasons unrelated to the adrenal gland. Although the management of bilateral and unilateral incidentalomas is the same, some studies suggest differences between the two groups.Patients and Methods: Retrospective study including 91 patients with adrenal incidentaloma at the Department of Endocrinology, Charl...