Endocrine Abstracts

TSH is involved in the immunomodulation of early pregnancy stages. Thyroid guidelines have indicated 2.5 mU/l as the best TSH level below which women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) need to be maintained, though this treshold is still controversial. Aims of the present study were to evaluate if pre-conceptional TSH is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, to identify a TSH cut-off significantly associated with risk of miscarriage and to assess the...

In the last decades, multi-tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (mTKI) have emerged as an effective treatment for radioiodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. Due to their pleiotropic mechanism of action, these drugs may cause different side effects. Hypocalcaemia has been reported in up to 35% of patients treated with mTKI, but up to date little is known about its pathophysiology and relevance. We report the case of a 78 years old woman operated on for a papillary thyroid canc...

Diagnosis of Central Hypothyroidism (CeH) is commonly given when FT4 concentrations are below the lower limit of normal range. A reduction in FT4 concentrations greater than 20% was proposed in ETA 2018 Guidelines as an unphysiological fluctuation indicating the onset of milder forms of CeH with FT4 still within the normal range. Similarly, TSH-index was proposed to quantify thyrotrope reserve, hence as a tool to detect patients at risk of CeH. Here we verified the performance...

Introduction: Feminizing hormone therapy (HT) for male-assigned at birth (AMAB) includes estrogens, often in combination with anti-androgens. Several studies have reported an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases and venous thromboembolism in AMAB receiving estrogens. Indeed, procoagulant changes induced by estrogen-based HT occur in transwomen as well as in cisgender individuals. Therefore, using estrogen in gender-affirming HT is relatively contraindicated in those ...

Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (PPNAD) is a rare form of ACTH-independent Cushing’s syndrome (CS). Approximately 30% of patients with PPNAD are sporadic cases and the other are familial. We describe a case of a patient affected by PPNAD presenting with isolated arterial hypertension. A 19-year-old black female patient was referred to the Endocrinology Unit in september-2021 due to severe arterial hypertension and fatigue. Previous clinical history was un...

Studies conducted using knockout mouse model revealed that defects of PROKR2 affect the correct ontogeny of GnRH neurons and, by consequence, neuroendocrine control of reproduction. Nevertheless its exact role during these processes and in the pathogenesis of congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) remains elusive due to the phenotypic differences observed between mouse and human. Zebrafish (ZF) has emerged in the last ten years as a reliable model organism for studying...

The G protein-coupled receptor PROKR2 play an important and not fully understood role in GnRH-secreting neurons physiology. Indeed, mutations of PROKR2 in humans are known to cause Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism (CHH) although with an important reproductive and olfactory phenotypic heterogeneity. The attempt to mimic PROKR2 human allelic variants in mouse model has so far failed to give insights into the mechanisms involved. The zebrafish (ZF), due to its amenability...

Introduction: The ghrelin suppressive effect of food is well established in normal subjects, whereas the effectiveness of meals in decreasing plasma ghrelin in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) is still debated. Based on the above, we elected to study the ghrelin dynamics after food or placebo in a group of anorectic girls at the moment of diagnosis and after weight recuperation.Study design: Nine anorectic women (age 14–32 years) were studied. Bo...

CHH is a rare disease with a relevant genetic background, and is characterized by a failure to enter (complete forms) or to complete (partial forms) pubertal development. It requires a treatment to allow the completion of puberty, and in male this goal can be achieved either using testosterone replacement therapy or administering gonadotropins (Gn); the latter allows both testicular development and the endogenous testosterone production. There are few studies evaluating the th...

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine tumor and its incidence has increased faster than in any other malignancy. Although TCs are usually well differentiated, disease recurrence or persistence is high, because of local and distant metastasis and therapeutic resistance. Among the different genetic alterations, BRAFV600E is the most frequent one. Several studies tried to establish a correlation between BRAFV600E and patients outcome, with controversial results. Nevert...