Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Functioning gonadotroph adenomas (GA) account for 20 to 25% of all pituitary adenomas. Clinical presentation consists in multiple ovarian follicles and cysts, higher estradiol level and endometrial hyperplasia. The treatment of choice is transphenoidal tumor resection.Case Presentation: A 40 year old woman presented with abdominal pain and menstrual cycle dysfunctions. Hormonal evaluation showed: FSH:13.8 mU/ml, estradiol:1549 pg/ml, PRL:81.7...

Background: Endogenous and exogenous factors may cause biochemical interferences with thyroid function immunoassays. Interference can be caused by many mechanisms including heterophilic antibodies, drugs and rheumatoid factors. Moreover, assay-specific interference has been described, such as antithyroid hormone antibodies resulting in falsely elevated or lowered concentrations depending on the assay.Case Presentation: We describe a case of a 38-years ol...

Background: Despite a high relapse rate, antithyroid drugs (ATDs) remain the first-line therapy of Graves’ disease (GD). Long-term follow-up studies of GD in Spain are scarce. Our aims were to identify clinical differences between patients who relapsed vs those who attained remission and to describe the relapse rate of GD after ATD withdrawal.Methods: We analyzed patients with the first episode of GD who were treated with ATDs during 2010 - 2020, in...

Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is very rare and difficult to differentiate from atypical parathyroid adenoma (AA). En-bloc surgical resection is recommended, but most cases are diagnosed after non-radical surgery, and it is recommended to expand it. Given the rarity of the cases, the difficulty in the histological diagnosis (HD) and the unpredictability of the evolution, we analyzed our experience with PC and AA.Material and methods: We conducted a ...

Background: Obesity represents a threatening worldwide epidemic but, beyond the guidelines recommendations, its modalities of treatment in the medical community appear as variable and not clearly defined. Aim of our survey was to assess the present real-world approach to obesity management in Italy.Methods: Online anonymous survey among the 2248 members of the Italian Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AME). The survey included 8 questions about d...

The highly toxic heavy metal Cadmium (Cd) is widely spread in the environment and could exert estrogen-like activity in tissues including breast. Previous studies demonstrated that Cd binds to estrogen receptor α positive (ERα+) breast cancer (BC) cells. In this new study, we evaluated effects of Cd on both ERα+ and ERα negative (ERα-) BC models with the aim to further characterize the mechanisms involved in Cd-related BC carcinogenesis. Specifically, ...

Background: The goals of acromegaly treatment are to achieve long-term biochemical control, control tumor size and decrease the risk of developing systemic comorbidities. Moreover, from the patient’s perspective, symptoms and QoL are critical parameters of disease control and should be assessed routinely. To aid in the global clinical management of acromegaly, a holistic clinical decision support tool, the Acromegaly Disease Activity Tool (ACRODAT®) was developed.</p...

Introduction: Maturity onset diabetes mellitus of the young (MODY) is a form of monogenic diabetes characterized by pancreatic B-cell dysfunction. The most common subtypes are caused by mutations in the genes encoding glucokinase (GCK) and hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF1a, HNF4a), although unidentified genes are also involved. Regulatory factor X6 (RFX6) is a transcription factor gene which has an important biological role in B-cell formation and function. Biallelic mutations ...

Background: In the general population, sleep disorders are associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment; moreover, people with dementia often have sleep disturbances. The prevalence of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, in acromegalic patients is higher than in the general population, and they may have a higher risk of cognitive impairment due to acromegaly treatment (i.e. Radiotherapy) or cardiovascular comorbidities. In the literature, data about the relation...

Background: ACROSTUDY is an open-label, non-interventional post-authorization safety study that began in 2004 to evaluate safety in at least 1000 acromegaly patients treated with the GH receptor antagonist pegvisomant (PEGV). This commitment was fulfilled in Jan 2013. ACROSTUDY was later amended to enroll an additional 110 patients that were naïve/semi-naive to PEGV treatment. Semi-naïve patients are defined as not having received PEGV therapy for at least 6 months p...