Endocrine Abstracts

Over the last years, there has been evidence that acromegaly may cause skeletal fragility with high risk of vertebral fractures. The diagnostic approach to this complication is still a matter of uncertainty, since DXA measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) does not provide reliable information on fracture risk in acromegaly. The cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) technique offers three-dimensional images for the radiographed area with the advantage to use non-dedicated eq...

Metabolic syndrome and obesity (MetS) are supposed to have a role in cancer but data analysing their association with GEP-NET are lacking. Aim of this study was to explore the association of early predictors of MetS with GEP-NET, usingas tools Fatty Liver Index (FLI), a predictor of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)and Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI), a gender-specific indicator of adipose dysfunction. A cross-sectional case-control observational study was conducted. VA...

Male idiopathic osteoporosis is an underestimated disease, despite its clinical and social importance. The biochemical mechanisms are still poorly understood even if the interaction between genetic factors and hormone environment (especially gonadal steroids and GH) plays a undoubtful role. In previous studies we demonstrated low plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in hypogonadal patients. The aim of this study was to investigate oxidative stress as risk factor for bone fr...

Idiopathic central hypogonadism (ICH) is a rare and heterogeneous disease due to defects of GnRH secretion or action. Depending on the association with a normal or defective sense of smell, ICH could be respectively identified as normosmic ICH (nICH) or Kallmann’s syndrome (KS). Recent experimental evidences indicate the involvement of the new PROK2/PROKR2 pathway in GnRH neuron maturation and function and mutations affecting these two genes have been described in some IC...

Background: Radioiodine (131I) therapy is performed in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), either for thyroid remnant ablation or treating distant metastasis. Although 131I therapy is generally considered safe, a genotoxic damage has been demonstrated both in vivo and in vitro.Aim: To evaluate the possible effect of Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761) supplementation on the time-course (up to 1...

Context: Lipodystrophic HIV patients frequently display impaired pituitary GH response. Objective. To investigate the GH response to GHRH+Arg in women with HIV-related lipodystrophy (HARS) compared with healthy females. To identify possible predictive factors for such a GH response in these patients.Patients: Forty-nine female patients with HARS were compared with 10 healthy women matched for age and BMI.Methods: Patients and contr...

Thyroid dysgenesis accounts for 75% of all cases of congenital hypothyroidism (CH), and includes thyroid agenesis or hemiagenesis, thyroid hypoplasia, and thyroid ectopy. Thyroid transcription factors TTF-1, TTF-2 and Pax-8, which are involved in the development of the thyroid gland and its normal migration, have been indicated as the best candidate genes but have been found to be mutated in a minority of cases. Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) protein is involved in several key events du...

Introduction: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a feature of type 1 diabetes mellitus, but it can develop in people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in the presence of precipitating factors. Antipsychotics have been associated with pancreatitis without DKA or hyperglycemia or acidosis with no evidence of pancreatitis. To our knowledge, there are few reports of patients who developed pancreatitis and DKA during treatment with antipsychotis. We present a case of a patient who developed ...

BackgroundRadiofrequency ablation (RFA) seems to achieve a significantly larger nodule volume reduction rate (VRR) than laser ablation (LA) in benign non-functioning thyroid nodules (BNTNs). We compared the efficacy and safety of both thermal ablation treatments at the 12-month follow-up in patients with solid or predominantly solid BNTN.MethodsThis 12-month, single-use, randomized open-label parallel trial c...

IntroductionThyroid diseases affect a large population worldwide and total thyroidectomy (TT) is the most common curative treatment [1]. Recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) lesions are the most dangerous complication [1]. The intraoperative neuromonitoring (NIM) is a useful tool in reducing the incidence of nerve injury, but a preoperative examinations of vocal cords function through flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopy (FFL) is recommended [1]. FFL is uncomfort...